Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 5.01%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Janus Henderson Group PLC DRC (ASX:JHG), which rose 8.17% or 2.01 points to trade at 26.60 at the close. Meanwhile, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH) added 4.90% or 1.24 points to end at 26.54 and Resmed Inc DRC (ASX:RMD) was up 4.10% or 0.960 points to 24.350 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which fell 19.94% or 0.67 points to trade at 2.69 at the close. Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) declined 14.60% or 1.65 points to end at 9.65 and Virgin Money UK PLC (ASX:VUK) was down 12.35% or 0.20 points to 1.46.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 923 to 299 and 300 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 13.93% to 29.623.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.75% or 12.65 to $1681.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.70% or 0.32 to hit $19.16 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.87% or 0.23 to trade at $26.71 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.84% to 0.6455, while AUD/JPY fell 0.90% to 69.14.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 99.118.