Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.03%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Industrials and Utilities sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.03%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which rose 6.92% or 0.12 points to trade at 1.85 at the close. Meanwhile, Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) added 5.62% or 0.05 points to end at 0.94 and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) was up 3.53% or 0.24 points to 7.04 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which fell 5.13% or 0.07 points to trade at 1.29 at the close. EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) declined 3.66% or 0.03 points to end at 0.79 and Abacus Property Group (ASX:ABG) was down 2.90% or 0.04 points to 1.17.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 593 to 558 and 367 ended unchanged.

Shares in Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) fell to 5-year lows; falling 5.13% or 0.07 to 1.29.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.74% to 9.80.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.47% or 9.70 to $2,061.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.83% or 0.61 to hit $74.50 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.79% or 0.63 to trade at $80.02 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.34% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.09% to 96.57.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 101.52.