Australian share prices closed down 1.41 percent in thin trade on Monday as the market followed negative leads from Wall Street and Asia, dealers said. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 65 points to 4,531.1, while the broader All Ordinaries index dropped 60.2 points to 4,536.1.
Dealers said shares in financial companies came under pressure after a sell-off on Wall Street at the end of last week. "The market's been a little bit subdued today. Some profit-taking on (US) financial stocks on Friday night really did spark a bit of a sell-off of financials today," CMC Markets analyst David Taylor said.
"There's a bit of profit-taking and consolidation. This particular week in September is known as a bit of a rough week for shares." The big banks took a pounding with NAB slipping 3.24 percent to 28.10 dollars, ANZ down 2.95 percent to 22.01 dollars, Commonwealth 1.95 percent lower at 46.67 and Westpac losing 1.75 percent to 24.09.
Rio Tinto was down 1.99 percent at 58.05 dollars while fellow miner BHP Billiton lost 1.20 percent to 37.84. Qantas Airways slumped 2.60 percent to 28.36, telco Telstra fell 2.11 percent to 3.25, supermarket Woolworths shrank 0.70 percent to 28.36 and media giant News Corp slid 1.38 percent to 15.69 percent.