Stocks continue slide to end worst week in a year AUSTRALIAN shares have suffered another sharp fall, losing $26 billion more in value to close down 3.8 per cent for the week, the biggest weekly fall in a year. At 4.15pm AEST, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 78.9 points, or 1.56 per cent, at 4983.5 points, the lowest level in five weeks. The broader All Ordinaries index was down 76.5 points, or 1.52 per cent, at 4964.3 points. The Aussie was trading at US96.85c late today, compared with US96.46c yesterday. Australian stocks suffered their biggest one-day fall in two months yesterday as more than $32bn was wiped from the value of the bourse. The sour mood from yesterday, when investors fretted over the prospect US and Japanese central banks may in future withdraw their support for the two economies through bond purchases, continued today. Today' fall was the fourth straight day of losses, making it the worst weekly performance for a year. There was broad-based selling on the day, with the market dropping about 1.6 per cent to finish at its lowest level since April 22. "A lot of what we have seen over the last couple of days has been due to what we have been seeing offshore rather than anything that's happening in Australia," Commonwealth Securities market analyst Steven Daghlian said. The slim possibility that stimulus could be pulled back over the next couple of months, even if it is a little, that was more than enough to see markets react to it significantly. A weaker Australian dollar also hurt the local market and disappointing Chinese manufacturing data weighed on mining companies. The rapid pullback among what were in-demand high-yielding stocks, such as big retail banks and Telstra, gathered pace today. Australia's four largest banks dropped between one and two per cent - ANZ fell 45c to $27.68, Commonwealth Bank fell 94c to $68.77, National Australia Bank fell 41c to $31.29 and Westpac was down 60c to $29.32. Telstra fell 8c to $4.87. Among the major miners, BHP-Billiton fell 52c to $34.36 and Rio Tinto fell 59c to $54.51. The one shining light was the gold sector, which rose 3.39 per cent as a firmer US dollar boosted the price of gold. Newcrest Mining rose 57c to $15.12 and Kingsgate Consolidated rose 12.5c to $1.55. Making news today, the chairman of casino operator Crown, James Packer, confirmed the company had sold its 10 per cent stake in rival Echo Entertainment for $264 million. Echo was down 41c, 11.92 per cent, to $3.03 while Crown was down 23c, or 1.76 per cent, to $12.83. Cattle farmer Australian Agricultural Company reported a loss of $46.5m for the three months to March 31, after booking a $43.2m non-cash writedown on its herd. AACo fell 2c to $1.08. The June share price index futures contract was down 87 points at 4983 points, with 52,189 contracts traded. National turnover was 1.7 billion securities worth $5.9bn. Overseas, the Tokyo sharemarket closed up 0.89 per cent in a rollercoaster session that came a day after the Nikkei suffered its worst one-day drop since Japan's March 2011 quake-tsunami disaster. The benchmark Nikkei 225 index, which yesterday tumbled 7.3 percent, finished 0.89 per cent, or 128.47 points, higher at 14,612.45, while the broader Topix index of all first-section shares rose 0.48 per cent, or 5.74 points, to 1194.08.