The Australian dollar tumbled to a one-month low against the US dollar and an 11-month low versus the safe-haven Swiss franc on Monday as risk-averse investors spurned commodities and commodity bloc currencies.
The US dollar broadly extended its gains as investors get out of sliding equity and commodity markets and switched into US government bonds. One Aussie dollar bought $0.7495/98, well off an intraday peak at $0.7580, while the Australian share market dropped 1.4 percent to a two-month low as mining companies fell further on heavy selling.