The waiting game on Wall Street trading spurred lower Australian exchanges on Friday noon as traders warmed the benched in anticipation of the US September employment date that was preceded by overnight weak showings from the US shares market.

As of 1204 AEDT on Friday, the S&P/ASX200 plunged by 18.3 points or 0.39 percent to 4673.0 points while the All Ordinaries Index retreated by 16.1 points or 0.34 percent to 4730.1 points with the Sydney Futures Exchange's December index contract trading down by 13 points to 4688, trading a total of 11,453 contracts.

Profit taking was the norms for traders in Wall Street for now, according to RBS Morgans Ipswich manager Tony Russell, as he stressed that Australian were investors were doing the same as the local market "have quite a strong run up, particularly with unemployment figures here and interest rates being put on hold."

Mr Russell noted that the resources sector dominated the Friday trading as by 1205 AEDT BHP Billiton gained 12 cents or 0.29 percent to $40.83 while Fortescue Metals Group picked up seven cents or 1.27 percent to $5.60, with Rio Tinto suffering a bit of a decline by giving up 24 cent or 0.30 percent to $79.30.

That mode of trading should be sustained for the rest of the day, according to Mr Russell, as by 1217 AEDT on the same day major retail banks tumbled into the red side of the board as Commonwealth Bank shed 48 cents to $51.02, NAB declined by 29 cents to $22.55, Westpac slid by 18 cents to $23.12 and ANZ sell-off nine cents to $24.05.

Also, investment bank Macquarie Group saw its stocks running down by 53 cents to $36.09 at 1222 AEDT.

The market was gripped by news of CGA Mining Ltd sealing a contract with Leighton Holdings Ltd subsidiary that would ramp up the output of a major gold project in the Philippines and by 1227 AEDT, CGA shares were down by 11 cents or 3.65 percent to $2.90 while Leighton's shot up by 29 cents or 0.83 percent to $35.34.

Sydney's spot price of gold skidded down by $US25.40 to $US1329.30 per ounce as gold miner Newcrest saw its shares declining by 42 cents or 0.99 cent to $41.90.

Overall market turnover reached a total of 1.07 billion securities and carrying a worth of $1.72 billion with stocks up numbering to 437 while those that declined so far totalled to 493 stocks and those left untouched registered 363 stocks.