Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.64%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.64%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN), which rose 4.97% or 0.27 points to trade at 5.70 at the close. Meanwhile, Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX:NEC) added 2.40% or 0.03 points to end at 1.28 and Bapcor Ltd (ASX:BAP) was up 2.18% or 0.10 points to 4.68 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU), which fell 10.04% or 0.55 points to trade at 4.93 at the close. Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) declined 8.87% or 1.06 points to end at 10.89 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was down 7.37% or 0.25 points to 3.14.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 596 to 425 and 396 ended unchanged.

Shares in Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) fell to 3-years lows; falling 10.04% or 0.55 to 4.93.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.28% to 10.12.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.58% or 15.46 to $2,663.86 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to hit $68.30 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $72.03 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.33% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY fell 0.42% to 96.43.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 105.82.