Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Materials and Metals & Mining sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.18%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Seek Ltd (AX:SEK), which rose 5.63% or 0.840 points to trade at 15.770 at the close. Meanwhile, Link Administration Holdings Ltd (AX:LNK) added 4.17% or 0.300 points to end at 7.500 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) was up 2.89% or 0.050 points to 1.780 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR), which fell 5.63% or 0.170 points to trade at 2.850 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN) declined 4.95% or 0.670 points to end at 12.870 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) was down 4.45% or 0.033 points to 0.698.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 622 to 499 and 340 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 5.35% to 10.866 a new 1-month low.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.18% or 2.25 to $1239.35 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.13% or 0.07 to hit $53.43 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.11 to trade at $55.76 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.7712, while AUD/JPY rose 0.38% to 87.45.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 100.47.