Aussie stocks shed billions in worst session in four months

The Australian stock market has suffered its biggest rout in four months, with nine in every 10 stocks losing value over a brutal day of trade.

At the close, the benchmark S&P / ASX 200 was down 1.93 per cent or 130.9 points to 6,649.7 points.

It's the single-day worst session endured by the market since September, and by midday the market had shed more than $55 billion.

READ MORE: Australia's surprise best state economy revealed

Almost every sector is down for the day, with those in the technology sector dropping the most (down 4.8 per cent). This follows pullbacks from tech giants on Wall Street overnight.

The day's biggest loss was felt by miner WSA which dropped 16.61 per cent or 0.49 cents over the course of one day's trade.

Buffeting the doom and gloom was shopping giant Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which gained 14.5 per cent.

READ MORE: Apple posts 'blowout' $145 billion quarter

The Aussie dollar is currently buying 76.3 US cents, having lifted slightly over the past week.

Infamous cryptocurrency Bitcoin is currently trading at $41,275 per coin. On Monday evening, it was trading almost as high as $45,000 per coin.

Stock watchers enthralled by "GameStop" fiasco

It's the most intriguing – and confusing – finance of the year thus far.

In short, punters on the widely-used online forum Reddit have been boosting the stock price of ailing video games store GameStop, in an attempt to profit off major hedge funds shorting the stock.

EXPLAINED: How an online forum called Reddit boosted a struggling company's stock by 1700 per cent

So far, they're winning – with some making so much profit they are paying off entire college fees.

Here's the full explainer for those looking to deep dive into all things internet, stock strategy and market greed.

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