Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Energy and IT sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.42%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU), which rose 7.29% or 0.640 points to trade at 9.420 at the close. Meanwhile, NIB Holdings (ASX:NHF) added 4.87% or 0.33 points to end at 7.10 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) was up 3.85% or 0.29 points to 7.82 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT), which fell 4.37% or 4.38 points to trade at 95.89 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) declined 4.00% or 0.100 points to end at 2.400 and United Malt Group Ltd (ASX:UMG) was down 3.70% or 0.16 points to 4.16.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 717 to 641 and 381 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 14.54% to 13.730.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.20% or 3.55 to $1773.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.24% or 0.17 to hit $70.77 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.40% or 0.30 to trade at $74.12 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7148, while AUD/JPY rose 0.12% to 81.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 96.278.