Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.29%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Oil Search Ltd (ASX:OSH), which rose 3.92% or 0.280 points to trade at 7.430 at the close. Meanwhile, Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:SIG) added 2.52% or 0.015 points to end at 0.610 and Emeco Holdings Ltd (ASX:EHL) was up 2.46% or 0.050 points to 2.080 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Nearmap Ltd (ASX:NEA), which fell 9.49% or 0.350 points to trade at 3.340 at the close. Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV) declined 8.16% or 2.940 points to end at 33.110 and Hub24 Ltd (ASX:HUB) was down 5.04% or 0.600 points to 11.300.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 593 to 540 and 401 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.63% to 10.846.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.15% or 2.05 to $1408.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.73% or 0.44 to hit $60.64 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.83% or 0.55 to trade at $67.07 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.38% to 0.6999, while AUD/JPY rose 0.26% to 75.84.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 96.553.