Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.81%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 4.98% or 0.06 points to trade at 1.16 at the close. Meanwhile, NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX:NWH) added 3.46% or 0.11 points to end at 3.29 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 2.47% or 0.08 points to 3.32 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which fell 5.18% or 0.09 points to trade at 1.69 at the close. Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) declined 5.00% or 0.58 points to end at 11.01 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was down 4.17% or 0.01 points to 0.23.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 692 to 394 and 448 ended unchanged.
Shares in NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX:NWH) rose to 3-years highs; rising 3.46% or 0.11 to 3.29.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.01% to 11.71.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 1.46% or 35.80 to $2,420.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.70% or 0.57 to hit $80.73 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.49% or 0.42 to trade at $84.69 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.07% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.16% to 105.71.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 104.04.