After hitting a four-month high last week, the Australian stockmarket backpedalled at Monday noon, as miners and banks suffer profit-taking.

At midday AEST, the S&P/ASX200 shed 24.1 points or 0.5 per cent at 4614.8 points, while the broader All Ordinaries dipped 22.6 points or 0.5 per cent at 4662.5.

Financials and materials are both down 0.6 per cent, while industrials slipped 0.3 per cent.

Of the big four banks, ANZ Banking Group dropped 6 cents at $23.77, Commonwealth Bank of Australia slid 42 cents to $52.29, National Australia Bank reversed 23 cents at $25.74and Westpac Banking Corp lost 12 cents to $23.29.

Investment bank Macquarie Group declined 1.06 per cent to $36.28.

Resources companies were mixed, with Rio Tinto giving back 72 cents to $74.81 while Fortescue Metals Group added 0.61 per cent to $4.87.

BHP Billiton took off 23 cents at $38.67, as news it is facing large regulatory hurdles in its bid for Potash Corp outweighed its announcement of a $US45 billion loan syndicate.

Nineteen of the 20 stocks on the S&P/ASX20 were in red, with the worst performer gold miner Newcrest Mining, which had slipped 1.2 per cent, or 50 cents, to $41.00. The spot price of gold in Sydney was $US1279.30, down $US1.48 from Friday's close of $US1280.78.

The only positive stock on the S&P/ASX20 was Telstra, having risen 4 cents, or 1.5 per cent, to $2.79.

Among the oil companies, Woodside Petroleum fell 0.75 per cent to $43.44, Santos lost 1.37 per cent to $12.92 and Oil Search took off 0.66 per cent to $6.01.

Retailers were mixed, as department store David Jones backpedalled 1.14 per cent to $5.18 while rival Myer advanced 0.50 per cent to $3.98.

Supermarket giant Woolworths lost 0.79 per cent to $28.53. Its competitor Wesfarmers, owner of Coles, shed 0.53 per cent to $33.28.

Michael Heffernan, senior client adviser and strategist at Austock Group said "There wasn't anything extraordinary on the commodities front."

"It's a case of taking a bit of a breather after the very strong run that we've had over the last week or so," he said.

The Australian bourse finished higher last Friday, extending its rally for three consecutive weeks as miners posted all-time high gains.