Aussie stocks hit one-month lows on bank debt worries

Australian stocks have been battered in post-Easter trade as concerns of bad debt in the big banks drag the market to one-month lows.

At the close on Tuesday, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 79.7 points or 1.57 percent at 5,004.5 points while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 75.4 points or 1.46 percent at 5,076.5 points.

Bad debt worries in Australia's banks on exposure to resources and services sector, which saw a high-momentum sell off Thursday, was continued on Tuesday in a low-volume post-Easter break trade.

"We had high volumes in the banks, but outside of that it was lighter," CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Xinhua

The local market has been fairly range bound over the month of March. However, the break to the downside on Tuesday on selling in the banks showed the prospect of further downside risks remain high, IG chief market strategist Chris Weston said in a note.

"Rallies and subsequent rejections of the former range would be shorting opportunities in my opinion," Weston said.

ANZ slumped 3.41 percent, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia dropped 2.27 percent, the National Australia Bank lost 2.44 percent and Westpac was 2.98 percent weaker.

BHP Billiton fell 1.71 percent, rival Rio Tinto slipped 0.38 percent while gold miner Newcrest edged 0.18 percent higher.

Oil Search shed 0.74 percent, Santos closed flat while Woodside Petroleum was 1.11 percent lower.

Wesfarmers lost 1.21 percent while Woolworths slid 2.58 percent after announcing it would ditch its 33-year-old in-house lost cost grocery label "Homebrand" following a review to consolidate its value range products as local competition with German supermarket giant Aldi heats up.

Qantas was 0.98 percent weaker and Telstra dipped 0.19 percent. Endit