Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Consumer Discretionary and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.39%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which rose 7.39% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.180 at the close. Meanwhile, Monadelphous Group Ltd (AX:MND) added 5.00% or 0.320 points to end at 6.720 and Woodside Petroleum Ltd (AX:WPL) was up 4.64% or 1.250 points to 28.190 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Bega Cheese Ltd (AX:BGA), which fell 6.05% or 0.480 points to trade at 7.450 at the close. Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH) declined 4.83% or 0.035 points to end at 0.690 and Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM) was down 4.58% or 0.340 points to 7.080.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 623 to 384 and 134 ended unchanged.
Shares in Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH) fell to all time lows; losing 4.83% or 0.035 to 0.690.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.63% to 22.198.
Gold for February delivery was down 0.53% or 5.90 to $1101.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 2.16% or 0.72 to hit $33.99 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 2.49% or 0.84 to trade at $34.56 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.62% to 0.7056, while AUD/JPY rose 1.31% to 83.58.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.55% at 98.83.