Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Industrials and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.61%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO), which rose 25.32% or 1.277 points to trade at 6.320 at the close. Meanwhile, Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) added 8.59% or 0.220 points to end at 2.780 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) was up 6.62% or 0.105 points to 1.690 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Virgin Money PLC (ASX:VUK), which fell 4.66% or 0.11 points to trade at 2.25 at the close. NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX:NWH) declined 4.29% or 0.13 points to end at 2.90 and Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX:LYC) was down 4.24% or 0.170 points to 3.840.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 639 to 630 and 365 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.94% to 13.064 a new 6-months low.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.01% or 0.25 to $1837.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.81% or 0.38 to hit $47.16 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.70% or 0.35 to trade at $50.60 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.38% to 0.7561, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 78.70.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 90.793.