Australian stocks lower on renewed risk-off move

Aussie stocks opened lower on Wednesday as concerns in Europe force a risk-off move.

In early trade, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 34.00 points, or 0.65 percent at 5,194.00 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 31.70 points, or 0.60 percent at 5,281.10 points.

Markets are beginning to focus on what has always been the "main game" as far as European risk, Italy, that has a weak banking system and looking to harness Brexit sentiment to force changes in Europe, CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Xinhua.

"The general risk-off move which has been going on a while now, has not impacted equities too much. We've seen buying of precious metals, buying of Japanese Yen and buying of Bonds (and) stocks, broadly, holding up ok, but that's cracking a bit now," Spooner said.

"In context (though), the market is still above the lows immediately after Brexit vote, so equity markets not making too much of a statement at the moment."

In early trade, ANZ was down 1.11 percent, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia shed 0.59 percent, the National Australia Bank fell 0.73 percent and Westpac was 0.88 percent lower.

BHP Billiton slumped 3.75 percent, rival Rio Tinto dropped 2.26 percent, while gold miner Newcrest rallied 4.02 percent as precious metals surge on safe-haven buying.

Oil Search fell1.45 percent, Santos slid 2.97 percent and Woodside Petroleum was 0.68 percent weaker.

Woolworths edged 0.78 percent lower however rival Wesfarmers added 0.23 percent.

Qantas lost 1.61 percent however Telstra is up 0.27 percent. Endit