Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, A-REITs and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.20%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which rose 5.79% or 0.090 points to trade at 1.645 at the close. Meanwhile, Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) added 5.12% or 0.73 points to end at 14.99 and Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF) was up 4.83% or 0.20 points to 4.34 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 36.07% or 1.360 points to trade at 2.410 at the close. A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX:A2M) declined 23.64% or 3.14 points to end at 10.14 and Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (ASX:QBE) was down 12.46% or 1.240 points to 8.710.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 715 to 564 and 351 ended unchanged.
Shares in A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX:A2M) fell to 52-week lows; losing 23.64% or 3.14 to 10.14.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 9.67% to 15.295.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.23% or 4.35 to $1886.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.27% or 0.13 to hit $48.23 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.39% or 0.20 to trade at $51.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.7605, while AUD/JPY rose 0.07% to 78.62.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 89.835.