Australian stocks tumbled 3.7 percent on Monday, the biggest fall since the sell-off in early August, as growing worries about the European debt crisis and global growth swept through markets and pushed investors out of riskier assets such as stocks.
At the weekend, the top German European Central Bank board member quit and senior German politicians started raising the possibility of a Greek debt default, stoking market fears that the eurozone's debt crisis will escalate. Losses were widespread among heavyweight banks and miners. Among the top four banks, losses ran between 4.1 percent and 4.6 percent, despite little direct exposure to Europe's debt problems, with Commonwealth Bank down 4.1 percent to A$45.45.
Global miner BHP Billiton dropped 3.9 percent to A$36.45 after metal prices dropped. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index slumped 156.2 points to 4,038.5 to close at the session low. It was the lowest close since August 9. Bionic ear maker Cochlear shares fell as much as 26 percent after the firm recalled its unimplanted Nucleus CI500 hearing implants after identifying a recent increase in the number of Nucleus CI512 implant failures. Cochlear shares ended down 20.3 percent at A$57.50. New Zealand's benchmark NZX 50 index fell 1.8 percent to 3,263.8.
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