Aussie stocks stumble in early Monday trade

Australian stocks stumbled in early Monday trade following falls in key commodities in the offshore session.

At the open, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index was down 11.4 points or 0.21 percent at 5,348, while the broader All Ordinaries index was down 10.7 points or 0.20 percent at 5,416.8.

Falls in iron ore, coal and steel futures in Friday's offshore session was weighing on the resources sector. However, energy stocks were rallying with the gains in benchmark crude.

"There's a bit of optimism an OPEC deal to cut oil output could be enforced at the meeting at the end of this month," CommSec market analyst Steven Daghlian told Xinhua.

"(Also), Russia, one of the world's biggest oil producers, said it's considering trying to maintain oil output flat for the next six months."

Financials, however, are weighing on the bourse with mixed trading in the heavyweight banks from investors continuing to rotate into underperforming sectors.

In early trade ANZ was down 0.80 percent, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia fell 0.27 percent, the National Australia Bank lost 0.21 percent, however Westpac edged 0.16 percent higher.

BHP Billiton slipped 0.15 percent, rival Rio Tinto dropped 0.89 percent, while gold miner Newcrest was 0.82 percent higher.

Oil Search rallied 1.89 percent, Santos surged 2.96 percent and Woodside Petroleum is 1.19 percent stronger.

Wesfarmers shed 1.07 percent while rival Woolworths was down 0.78 percent.

Qantas fell 1.12 percent and telecom giant Telstra edged 0.20 percent lower. Endit