Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.50%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.50%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH ), which rose 8.23% or 0.07 points to trade at 0.86 at the close. Meanwhile, Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA ) added 4.44% or 0.26 points to end at 6.12 and Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN ) was up 3.65% or 1.44 points to 40.84 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB ), which fell 5.14% or 0.17 points to trade at 3.14 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX ) declined 4.73% or 0.10 points to end at 1.92 and Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS ) was down 4.53% or 0.08 points to 1.58.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 648 to 397 and 376 ended unchanged.

Shares in Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH ) rose to 52-week highs; up 8.23% or 0.07 to 0.86.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.74% to 13.84.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.46% or 12.75 to $2,762.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 2.02% or 1.40 to hit $70.66 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 1.85% or 1.35 to trade at $74.16 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.16% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 100.23.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 103.93.

Source: Investing.com