Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Financials, Gold and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.52%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nine Ent Fpo (AX:NEC), which rose 9.28% or 0.090 points to trade at 1.060 at the close. Meanwhile, Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) added 9.17% or 0.028 points to end at 0.328 and Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:SKT) was up 3.77% or 0.170 points to 4.680 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL), which fell 13.35% or 0.225 points to trade at 1.460 at the close. Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) declined 6.01% or 0.185 points to end at 2.895 and Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE) was down 4.32% or 0.150 points to 3.320.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 588 to 446 and 332 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 4.92% to 14.296.
Gold for December delivery was up 0.08% or 1.05 to $1327.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.75% or 0.36 to hit $47.47 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.94% or 0.47 to trade at $49.34 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.07% to 0.7630, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 77.13.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.05% at 95.48.