Reuters Australia
Aussie stocks fall 0.6 pct; Westpac gains
Friday August 8, 02:37 PM
(Adds Westpac, miners; updates indices)
SYDNEY, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Australian shares fell 0.6 percent on Friday, led down by the big banks as concerns about further financial sector losses percolated through the market following another sell-off on Wall Street.
In the U.S., Citigroup C.N agreed to buy back $7.3 billion of illiquid securities [nN07477337], while insurance giant American International Group AIG.N reported a big quarterly loss after the market closed on Wednesday.
All Australia's major banks were down except Westpac Banking Corp Ltd, (ASX: WBC.ax) and its takeover target St. George Bank Ltd ((ASX: SGB.ax) .
In a market update on Friday, Westpac said its credit quality remained good, distancing itself from credit market problems revealed last month by National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB.ax) and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd ANZ.[nSYD54981] The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO fell 31.3 points to 4.952.0 by 0225 GMT, after gaining 3.4 percent over the previous two sessions.
New Zealand's benchmark NZ-50 index .NZ50 was down 1.5 percent, or 50.23 points at 3,3280.66. The most heavily weighted stock, Telecom Corp of New Zealand (NZX: TEL.nz) , was down 8.4 percent at NZ$3.37. Telecom forecast a sharp decline in fiscal 2009 earnings [nWEL116243].
STOCKS ON THE MOVE
* Westpac (ASX: WBC.ax) was up 1.7 percent at A$23.54 and St. George gained 1.1 percent to A$29.60.
Among the other banks, NAB was down 2.6 percent at A$25.10, ANZ was off 2.6 percent at A$17.53 and Commonwealth Bank of Australia Ltd (ASX: CBA.ax) dropped 1.1 percent to A$43.46.
* Major miners were lower on weaker commodity prices. BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP.ax) eased 0.5 percent to A$37.00 and its takeover target Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO.ax) dropped 0.9 percent to A$113.88.
* Leading gold miner Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX: NCM.ax) was up 0.7 percent at A$25.38 after it announced it was buying a stake in a Papua New Guinea gold mining project. [nSYU004895]
* Investment group Guiness Peat Group plc (ASX: GPG.ax) was up 2.2 percent at A$1.175 after selling its 29.7 percent stake in mid-sized insurer Tower Australia Ltd (ASX: TWR.ax) . ($1=A$1.10) (Reporting by Bruce Hextall)
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