Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Consumer Discretionary and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.94%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA), which rose 4.58% or 0.30 points to trade at 6.85 at the close. Meanwhile, Alumina Ltd (ASX:AWC) added 3.05% or 0.06 points to end at 2.03 and South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) was up 2.95% or 0.14 points to 4.89 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P), which fell 7.62% or 0.13 points to trade at 1.57 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) declined 6.91% or 0.09 points to end at 1.14 and Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) was down 6.76% or 1.03 points to 14.20.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 742 to 608 and 382 ended unchanged.
Shares in Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) fell to 52-week lows; losing 7.62% or 0.13 to 1.57. Shares in Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) fell to 5-year lows; down 6.76% or 1.03 to 14.20.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 16.76% to 19.99 a new 1-month high.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.34% or 6.80 to $1,993.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 2.02% or 2.14 to hit $108.16 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 2.39% or 2.61 to trade at $111.94 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.12% to 0.73, while AUD/JPY rose 0.42% to 85.79.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 98.55.