Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.67%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Materials and IT sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.67%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 10.74% or 0.15 points to trade at 1.50 at the close. Meanwhile, Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:VEA) added 3.58% or 0.11 points to end at 3.04 and Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX:SPK) was up 2.83% or 0.08 points to 2.91 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were APA Group (ASX:APA), which fell 4.00% or 0.31 points to trade at 7.44 at the close. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) declined 3.81% or 0.12 points to end at 3.03 and Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN) was down 3.79% or 0.14 points to 3.55.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 602 to 457 and 448 ended unchanged.

Shares in Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) rose to 52-week highs; up 10.74% or 0.15 to 1.50.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.90% to 12.47.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.18% or 4.80 to $2,684.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.03% or 0.02 to hit $73.69 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.01% or 0.01 to trade at $77.61 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.08% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.55% to 99.95.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 101.62.