Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, Utilities and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.08%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT), which rose 9.88% or 0.040 points to trade at 0.445 at the close. Meanwhile, Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) added 7.83% or 0.085 points to end at 1.170 and Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) was up 6.26% or 0.370 points to 6.280 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which fell 7.87% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.410 at the close. Nine Ent Fpo (AX:NEC) declined 5.02% or 0.075 points to end at 1.420 and Programmed Maintenance Services Ltd (AX:PRG) was down 4.68% or 0.055 points to 1.120.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 456 to 423 and 275 ended unchanged.
Shares in Programmed Maintenance Services Ltd (AX:PRG) fell to all time lows; falling 4.68% or 0.055 to 1.120.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.66% to 21.931.
Gold for April delivery was down 0.24% or 2.80 to $1154.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.05% or 0.01 to hit $31.70 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.39% or 0.14 to trade at $34.33 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.08% to 0.7194, while AUD/JPY fell 0.02% to 84.06.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.13% at 96.64.