Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.56%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 7.89% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.21 at the close. Meanwhile, Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) added 3.27% or 0.07 points to end at 2.05 and Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) was up 2.36% or 0.09 points to 3.90 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA), which fell 7.42% or 0.53 points to trade at 6.61 at the close. Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) declined 6.94% or 0.17 points to end at 2.28 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was down 4.65% or 0.03 points to 0.62.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 698 to 444 and 459 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 8.80% to 11.51.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.01% or 0.20 to $2,308.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.05% or 0.04 to hit $86.55 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.18% or 0.16 to trade at $90.81 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.11% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.08% to 99.62.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 104.04.