CANBERRA: Australia stocks were lower after the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, IT and Industrials sectors led shares lower. At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.78%. The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC), which rose 5.23% or 0.093 points to trade at 1.863 at the close. Meanwhile, Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) added 3.58% or 0.290 points to end at 8.400 and Aveo Group (AX:AOG) was up 2.97% or 0.095 points to 3.295 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which fell 6.68% or 0.195 points to trade at 2.725 at the close. Bapcor Ltd (AX:BAP) declined 5.47% or 0.300 points to end at 5.180 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) was down 4.66% or 0.160 points to 3.270.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 637 to 415 and 389 ended unchanged. The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.14% to 11.977. Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.22% or 2.68 to $1226.88 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.17% or 0.08 to hit $47.91 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.12% or 0.06 to trade at $50.83 a barrel. AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7385, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 84.02. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 99.47.