The Australian stock market opened lower on Thursday, amid profit-taking in various sectors.

At 10.34 (AEDT), the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 5.7 points, or 0.1 percent at 5,928.5. The broader All Ordinaries index was also lower 5.7 points/0.2 per cent, at 6,006.6 points.

CMC Markets chief market analyst Ric Spooner told Xinhua "the dominating feature in the market is that we could be seeing a continuation of the profit-taking we've seen in recent days", following a similar trend in the U.S. market.

Unconfirmed reports about a bid for oil and gas giant Santos, which had gone into a trading halt, was one of the major pieces of news for the day and if confirmed would likely see a rally when it came back on the market, depending on what the news was, he said.

Australian mining giant BHP Billiton slipped 0.62 percent, while rival Rio Tinto edged up 0.31 percent. Fortescue Metals was higher 0.22 percent and Newcrest Mining was up 0.3 percent. Oil Search edged 0.28 percent higher.

The big banks opened mostly lower, with Commonwealth Bank of Australia slipping 0.09 percent, National Australia Bank down 0.37 percent and Westpac 0.06 percent lower. ANZ edged 0.17 percent higher.

Supermarket chain Wesfarmers was down 0.51 percent and rival Woolworths dipped 0.69 percent.

Qantas soared 2.28 percent while telecom giant Telstra slipped 0.15 percent and biomed giant CSL was down 0.48 percent. 

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