Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Financials, Healthcare and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.63%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which rose 10.23% or 0.31 points to trade at 3.34 at the close. Meanwhile, Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) added 7.64% or 1.050 points to end at 14.800 and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV) was up 6.98% or 1.58 points to 24.22 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Virgin Money UK PLC (ASX:VUK), which fell 10.20% or 0.20 points to trade at 1.80 at the close. New Hope Corporation Ltd (ASX:NHC) declined 8.16% or 0.120 points to end at 1.350 and Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) was down 6.36% or 1.170 points to 17.220.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 635 to 545 and 326 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.57% to 21.198.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.27% or 4.70 to $1718.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 1.54% or 0.52 to hit $33.19 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.86% or 0.31 to trade at $35.72 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.25% to 0.6652, while AUD/JPY fell 0.21% to 71.29.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 98.312.