Australian shares have opened half a percentage point weaker as falling commodity prices hit mining stocks, and banking shares rally.
The local market has followed Wall Street lower, where the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the broad-based S&P 500 and the Nasdaq tech index all lost more than one per cent during Friday night trade.
RBS Morgans Ipswich manager Tony Russell said a fall in commodity prices, including a one per cent fall in copper prices, had hit the big mining stocks.
BHP Billiton shed 51 cents to $34.37 while Rio Tinto lost 80 cents to $54.38.
But the big banks are firmer, following National Australia Bank’s announcement of a $300 million share buy back.
“Markets do like buybacks, it’s not a bad capital management strategy,” Mr Russell said.
“Buying those shares and cancelling them increases earnings accordingly.”
NAB shares rose 30 cents to $29.30 while Commonwealth Bank added 43 cents to $67.29, Westpac put on 24 cents to $28.68 and ANZ found 33 cents to $27.87.
Meanwhile, shares in Cochlear have fallen more than 10 per cent after the hearing implant maker reported slowing growth so far in 2013.
It lost $6.64 to hit $57.90, after revealing sales in the second half of 2013 “have been weaker” as the company waited for approval to sell its new Nucleus 6 product in the United States and Europe.
Telstra is also under pressure as the asbestos scare from the national broadband rollout continues, with its shares down 6.5 cents or 1.37 per cent to $4.67.
KEY FACTS
* At 1030 AEST on Monday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 26.6 points, or 0.54 per cent, at 4,900 points.
* The broader All Ordinaries index was down 30.7 points, or 0.62 per cent, at 4,883.3 points.
* The June share price index futures contract was down 21 points at 4,913 points, with 11,861 contracts traded.
* National turnover was 277.3 million securities worth $599.1 million.
