Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, A-REITs and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.04%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (ASX:GXY), which rose 8.42% or 0.085 points to trade at 1.095 at the close. Meanwhile, Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA) added 6.90% or 0.060 points to end at 0.930 and Orocobre Ltd (ASX:ORE) was up 6.08% or 0.160 points to 2.790 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX:SAR), which fell 8.33% or 0.310 points to trade at 3.410 at the close. Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) declined 6.80% or 0.330 points to end at 4.520 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) was down 6.64% or 0.640 points to 9.000.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 589 to 531 and 350 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.61% to 10.761 a new 3-months low.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.34% or 5.05 to $1471.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.94% or 0.54 to hit $56.61 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.77% or 0.48 to trade at $61.81 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.25% to 0.6880, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 75.18.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 97.975.