Australian market edges lower at open

The Australian market opened slightly lower at the end of the week amid a strengthening U.S. dollar.

At 1035 local time (AEDT), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 1.6 points, or 0.03 percent at 5,537 points, while the broader All Ordinaries slipped 0.9 points, or 0.02 percent lower at 5,594 points.

"We've just basically seen a steady opening this morning ... there's quite a lot going on in world markets ... in some circumstances it'd be a bit negative for stock markets, particularly now ... with the very strong U.S. dollar and the ongoing increase in bond yields," CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Xinhua.

Money coming out of the bond market into stocks "would be one observation", he said, and "we've seen quite significant weakness in the gold mining sector this morning, which has been a bit of a casualty of the stronger dollar".

"Overall ... it's a fairly steady and quiet open to the last day of the week at this stage."

Mining giant BHP Billiton slipped 0.14 percent, while rival Rio Tinto edged up 0.5 percent. Gold miner Newcrest fell 5.18 percent.

Santos was up 0.51 percent, Oil Search slipped 0.15 percent and Woodside Petroleum was down 0.48 percent.

ANZ was down 0.45 percent and Commonwealth Bank of Australia was 0.52 percent higher. The National Australia Bank edged up 0.07 percent and Westpac slipped 0.09 percent.

Wesfarmers was up 0.05 percent and rival Woolworths edged 0.69 percent lower. Qantas fell 2.68 percent and telecom giant Telstra slipped 0.1 percent. Endit