Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Materials and Consumer Staples sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.12%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 5.84% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.080 at the close. Meanwhile, Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) added 5.12% or 0.220 points to end at 4.520 and Syrah Res F (AX:SYR) was up 4.53% or 0.120 points to 2.770 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Vocus Fpo (AX:VOC), which fell 4.27% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.810 at the close. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) declined 3.17% or 0.200 points to end at 6.100 and Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR) was down 3.09% or 0.090 points to 2.820.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 585 to 501 and 348 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.60% to 12.214.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.11% or 13.95 to $1267.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.57% or 0.81 to hit $52.51 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.38% or 0.76 to trade at $55.65 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.30% to 0.7523, while AUD/JPY fell 0.61% to 83.09.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 100.52.