Stocks to watch on the Australian stock exchange on Monday, October 8:

ANZ – ANZ BANKING GROUP – up 20 cents, or 0.79 per cent, at $25.50

CBA – COMMONWEALTH BANK – up 30 cents, or 0.53 per cent, at $56.85

NAB – NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK – up 16 cents. or 0.61 per cent, at $26.31

WBC – WESTPAC BANKING CORP – up 31 cents, or 1.2 per cent, at $25.88

The National Australia Bank and the Commonwealth Bank have cut the interest rate for their standard variable home loans for by 20 basis points.

Westpac later cut its standard variable rate by 18 basis points.

The home loan cuts are less than the 25 basis point cut announced by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on Tuesday.

ASX – ASX LTD – down 23 cents, or 0.76, at $29.86

ASX Ltd chairman Rick Holliday-Smith says the equity market operator has responded well to the arrival of competitor Chi-X on the local scene but notes a deterioration in the quality of the local market.

BOQ – BANK OF QUEENSLAND LTD – down 41 cents, or 5.15 per cent, at $7.55

Bank of Queensland (BoQ) is poised to post the first full year loss by an Australian bank in 20 years because of its exposure to the struggling south-east Queensland property market.

MAH – MACMAHON HOLDINGS LTD – up half a cent to 29 cents

Shares in Macmahon, a construction and mining company, have entered a trading halt ahead of an announcement from the company about takeover rumours.

ORG – ORIGIN ENERGY LTD – up eight cents, or 0.69 per cent, at $11.66

Australia’s largest electricity retailer Origin Energy has pushed back its next debt repayment to 2015 after securing a $2.4 billion syndicated bank loan facility.

SFH – SPECIALTY FASHION GROUP LTD – steady at 50 cents

Specialty Fashion Group has appointed the co-founder of upmarket fashion website Net-A-Porter, Megan Quinn, as its latest board member.

TLS – TELSTRA CORPORATION LTD – up two cents, or 0.5 per cent, at $3.95

Telstra board member Timothy Chen has resigned after just six months in the job to return to China.

VRL – VILLAGE ROADSHOW LTD – up one cent at $3.51

Village Roadshow has taken a majority stake in a $US32 million ($A31.39 million) Las Vegas water park currently under construction.

WOW – WOOLWORTHS LTD – up 38 cents, or 1.3 per cent, at $29.63

Woolworths will spin off its shopping centres into a new property trust, and tap investors for up to $506 million to help fund the deal.

AAP jcc/