Australian shares slid as weaker commodity prices weighed down the big miners and banking giant Westpac paid out its dividend.

A fall in most base metal prices dented diversified resources giant BHP Billiton and its rival Rio Tinto, Lonsec senior client adviser Michael Heffernan said.

“The big resources stocks down a bit today probably due to the waxing and waning of commodity prices not shooting the lights out last night,” he said.

BHP lost 29 cents to $37.95, Rio dropped 23 cents to $65.25 and iron ore miner Fortescue Metals shed 24 cents to $5.46.

Gold miner Newcrest gave up 25 cents to $9.88.

In banking, Westpac was off 95.07 cents at $33.18 after paying out a 98 cent dividend.

“It held its dividend very well. That is a very good result,” Mr Heffernan said.

Of the other banks, ANZ lifted 33 cents to $32.71, National Australia Bank added 10 cents to $34.78, while Commonwealth Bank came back from its record high, losing 22 cents to $79.10.

Qantas added 2.5 cents to $1.25 after it confirmed it will close its Avalon heavy maintenance facility in Victoria at the end of March.

Casinos operator Echo Entertainment dropped 10 cents, or 3.92 per cent, to $2.45 after it said it could spend up to $1.5 billion on redeveloping its Queensland casinos.

Telco giant Telstra added three cents to $5.18.

KEY FACTS

* At 1615 AEDT on Friday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 21.3 points, or 0.39 per cent, at 5,400.7 points.

* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 21 points, or 0.39 per cent, at 5,394.4 points.

* The December share price index futures contract was 20 points lower at 5,409 points, with 23,656 contracts traded.

* National turnover was 1.6 billion securities worth $4.3 billion.