Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.26%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the , and sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the fell 0.26%.

The best performers of the session on the were Virgin Money UK PLC (ASX:), which rose 24.54% or 0.660 points to trade at 3.350 at the close. Meanwhile, Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (ASX:) added 5.68% or 0.025 points to end at 0.465 and NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX:) was up 5.30% or 0.150 points to 2.980 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Western Areas Ltd (ASX:), which fell 4.47% or 0.130 points to trade at 2.780 at the close. Polynovo Ltd (ASX:) declined 4.28% or 0.080 points to end at 1.790 and Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.31% or 0.290 points to 8.470.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 586 to 521 and 348 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.07% to 11.262.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.20% or 2.95 to $1463.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $58.09 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.21% or 0.13 to trade at $63.14 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.13% to 0.6776, while AUD/JPY rose 0.11% to 74.19.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 98.265.

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