THE Australian share market has lost more than $50 billion in value as a fresh crash in Chinese stocks drives heavy falls around Asia.

Within 15 minutes of trade opening, the benchmark ASX 200 index was down 2.6 per cent at 5,082, while the broader All Ordinaries matched that slide to 5,091.

However, it seemed that a few hardy 'bargain hunters' moved in after that, pushing the market back towards a more moderate 1.8 per cent slide by 11:18am (AEST), before a disastrous Chinese stock market open saw Australia's main indices head to an even worse 3.7 per cent slump.

By 12:49pm the ASX 200 was off 188 points to 5,026 and the All Ordinaries index was also down 3.6 per cent to 5,037.

The ASX 200 had already lost 1.4 per cent on Friday to close at 5,215 after a key index showed Chinese manufacturing had its sharpest contraction last month in more than six years.

Read more at ABC News