Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.10%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.10%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT), which rose 3.10% or 0.05 points to trade at 1.58 at the close. Meanwhile, Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX:SUL) added 2.87% or 0.44 points to end at 15.79 and Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR) was up 2.61% or 0.03 points to 1.18 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL), which fell 13.33% or 0.28 points to trade at 1.82 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) declined 7.73% or 0.04 points to end at 0.51 and Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) was down 6.96% or 0.11 points to 1.47.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 640 to 538 and 412 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.26% to 10.63.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.96% or 19.30 to $2,038.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 2.01% or 1.45 to hit $73.47 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.90% or 1.47 to trade at $78.88 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.22% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.11% to 97.27.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 102.00.