The Australian share market tumbled at the open on Monday despite a solid lead-in from Wall Street overnight.

At 10:38 (AEST), the main S&P/ASX200 index was down 41.60 points, or 0.72 percent, to sit at 5,702.30 points - while the wider-ranged All Ordinaries index was also down 38.40 points, or 0.66 percent, to sit at 5,765.00 points.

The drop-off in the local bourse came despite relative strength out of the U.S. markets following the positive run on Wall Street, spurred by the Jackson Hole meeting between the global heads of the central banks.

Despite the significant downward pressure, there were some winners early on, with Phileo (up 13.91 percent), Adairs (up 7.41 percent), and online retailer Kogan (up 4.92 percent) all making gains - while Magnis Resources (down 15.63 percent), Japara Healthcare (down 7.18 percent, and OZ Minerals (down 4.24 percent) all doing worse than the market average.

In the banking sector, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (down 1.30 percent), Westpac (down 1.34 percent), the ANZ (down 0.74 percent), and the National Australia Bank (down 0.98 percent) all struggled in the early going.

The miners also faltered, with BHP (down 0.15 percent), Rio Tinto (down 1.37 percent), and Fortescue (down 1.92 percent) - while Newcrest (up 0.31 percent) managed to buck the market trend.

In oil and gas, Woodside (up 0.03 percent) held firm, Oil Search were flat for no gain, while Santos (up 0.96 percent) continued their stellar run of late.

Grocery giant Woolworths (down 0.84 percent) had a rough start, as did their rivals Wesfarmers (down 0.86 percent).

Telco giant Telstra (down 0.51 percent) were poor, while airline Qantas (down 5.65 percent) finally felt the pinch from their poor result on Friday.

One Australian dollar was buying 79.37 U.S. cents, while crude oil was trading at 47.66 U.S. dollars per barrel.