Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Consumer Discretionary and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 2.35%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were AMP Ltd (ASX:AMP), which rose 7.53% or 0.105 points to trade at 1.500 at the close. Meanwhile, Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR) added 7.01% or 0.095 points to end at 1.450 and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) was up 5.65% or 0.320 points to 5.980 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Orica Ltd (ASX:ORI), which fell 18.12% or 2.780 points to trade at 12.560 at the close. Service Stream Ltd (ASX:SSM) declined 14.18% or 0.190 points to end at 1.150 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT) was down 11.04% or 14.84 points to 119.52.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 1036 to 354 and 309 ended unchanged.
Shares in Orica Ltd (ASX:ORI) fell to 3-years lows; losing 18.12% or 2.780 to 12.560. Shares in Service Stream Ltd (ASX:SSM) fell to 3-years lows; falling 14.18% or 0.190 to 1.150.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 23.86% to 17.637 a new 3-months high.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.04% or 18.55 to $1756.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 1.24% or 0.79 to hit $62.74 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 1.12% or 0.74 to trade at $65.37 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.60% to 0.7825, while AUD/JPY fell 0.72% to 83.01.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.37% at 90.472.