Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.78%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.78%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG), which rose 5.26% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.20 at the close. Meanwhile, Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN) added 4.08% or 0.13 points to end at 3.32 and Aurizon Holdings Ltd (ASX:AZJ) was up 4.03% or 0.15 points to 3.87 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR), which fell 6.40% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.17 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 4.94% or 0.13 points to end at 2.50 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was down 4.00% or 0.03 points to 0.72.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 746 to 538 and 349 ended unchanged.

Shares in Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) fell to all time lows; falling 4.00% or 0.03 to 0.72.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.37% to 11.77.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.03% or 0.55 to $1,788.35 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.35% or 0.27 to hit $75.84 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.22% or 0.18 to trade at $81.03 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.04% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 91.98.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 104.10.