Australia Stocks: ABC, Commonwealth, Macquarie, Newcrest Mining

By Shani Raja

Aug. 13 (Bloomberg) -- The S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 56.90 points, or 1.1 percent, to 4,996.70 at 10:20 a.m. in Sydney. The broader All Ordinaries Index declined 53.50, or 1.1 percent, to 5,036.80, while the futures index expiring in September lost 1.2 percent to 4,970.

Financial shares: Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG AU), Australia's biggest investment bank, dropped A$1.21, or 2.2 percent, to A$54, the most since the start of the month. National Australia Bank Ltd. (NAB AU), the nation's largest lender by assets, declined 61 cents, or 2.3 percent, to A$25.86.

U.S. financial stocks fell after JPMorgan Chase & Co. said it may post more credit losses, pushing the worldwide costs for the collapse of the subprime mortgage market to more than $500 billion. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 15.73 points, or 1.2 percent, to 1,289.59.

ABC Learning Centres Ltd. (ABS AU), rose 3 cents, or 4.4 percent, to 71 cents, the biggest gainer on the index. The world's biggest publicly-traded owner of child-care centers agreed to sell its U.K. vouchers business to Computershare Ltd. (CPU AU) for 90 million pounds ($171 million). Computershare declined 73 cents, or 7.3 percent, to A$9.26, the most since 2003.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA AU), the nation's biggest mortgage lender, slipped 89 cents, or 2 percent, to A$43.62. The bank posted the slowest earnings growth in four years as bad debts doubled and companies including Centro Properties Group struggled to repay loans.

Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM AU) declined 22 cents, or 0.9 percent, to A$23.27, the lowest since September 2007. Gold fell for an eighth straight session, the longest slide since 2001, on speculation that the dollar's strength will reduce demand for the precious metal as an alternative investment.

Telstra Corp. (TLS AU), Australia's largest telephone company, fell 10 cents, or 2.2 percent, to A$4.40. The company reported second-half profit rose 13 percent as it attracted more high-speed mobile and Internet users.

To contact the reporter on this story: Shani Raja in Sydney at sraja4@bloomberg.net.