Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the A-REITs, Healthcare and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 5.30%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were ALS Ltd (ASX:ALQ), which rose 5.48% or 0.28 points to trade at 5.39 at the close. Meanwhile, Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) added 5.07% or 0.70 points to end at 14.50 and ARB Corporation Ltd (ASX:ARB) was up 4.83% or 0.61 points to 13.25 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Charter Hall Retail Reit (ASX:CQR), which fell 14.70% or 0.51 points to trade at 2.96 at the close. Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX:CCP) declined 14.33% or 1.69 points to end at 10.10 and Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF) was down 13.96% or 0.550 points to 3.390.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 740 to 499 and 250 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.25% to 39.746.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 1.01% or 16.70 to $1634.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.68% or 0.38 to hit $22.98 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.11% or 0.03 to trade at $26.37 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.33% to 0.6083, while AUD/JPY fell 0.60% to 66.05.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 99.333.