Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.78%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.78%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX:PME), which rose 11.02% or 4.21 points to trade at 42.40 at the close. Meanwhile, ARB Corporation Ltd (ASX:ARB) added 4.76% or 1.48 points to end at 32.58 and GUD Holdings Ltd (ASX:GUD) was up 4.60% or 0.52 points to 11.82 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (ASX:QBE), which fell 5.72% or 0.490 points to trade at 8.080 at the close. Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR) declined 3.81% or 0.200 points to end at 5.050 and Alumina Ltd (ASX:AWC) was down 3.81% or 0.070 points to 1.765.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 909 to 472 and 313 ended unchanged.

Shares in Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX:PME) rose to all time highs; rising 11.02% or 4.21 to 42.40.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 8.54% to 15.684 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.26% or 4.70 to $1834.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.36% or 0.19 to hit $52.23 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.47% or 0.26 to trade at $54.84 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.31% to 0.7678, while AUD/JPY fell 0.56% to 79.66.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 90.835.