Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, A-REITs and Consumer Staples sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.83%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which rose 3.83% or 0.900 points to trade at 24.400 at the close. Meanwhile, Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (AX:DHG) added 3.74% or 0.110 points to end at 3.050 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) was up 2.17% or 0.070 points to 3.290 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Bravura Solutions Ltd (AX:BVS), which fell 4.81% or 0.260 points to trade at 5.150 at the close. Appen Ltd (AX:APX) declined 4.17% or 0.980 points to end at 22.540 and Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) was down 3.84% or 1.250 points to 31.320.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 624 to 489 and 348 ended unchanged.
Shares in Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) rose to all time highs; up 3.83% or 0.900 to 24.400.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.16% to 11.780.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.11% or 1.45 to $1292.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $62.12 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.20% or 0.14 to trade at $69.26 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.22% to 0.7127, while AUD/JPY rose 0.25% to 79.58.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 96.863.