Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.72% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Sydney, the fell 0.72%.

The best performers of the session on the were Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:), which rose 12.58% or 0.10 points to trade at 0.85 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:) added 10.40% or 0.07 points to end at 0.69 and Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:) was up 7.03% or 0.09 points to 1.37 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:), which fell 5.85% or 0.96 points to trade at 15.44 at the close. IPH Ltd (ASX:) declined 5.15% or 0.46 points to end at 8.47 and Charter Hall Group (ASX:) was down 5.13% or 0.73 points to 13.49.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 671 to 613 and 359 ended unchanged.

Shares in Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:) fell to 52-week lows; falling 5.85% or 0.96 to 15.44.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.18% to 12.81.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.06% or 1.00 to $1,816.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.21% or 0.17 to hit $81.39 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.38% or 0.33 to trade at $87.21 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.31% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.27% to 91.90.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.22% at 104.46.