Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.34%

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 declined 1.34%.

The best performers of the session on the were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:), which rose 4.07% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.64 at the close. Meanwhile, Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:) added 2.63% or 0.01 points to end at 0.39 and Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:) was up 2.32% or 0.11 points to 4.85 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:), which fell 5.31% or 0.09 points to trade at 1.51 at the close. Ingenia Communities Group (ASX:) declined 4.77% or 0.19 points to end at 3.79 and Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:) was down 4.55% or 1.61 points to 33.74.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 827 to 502 and 412 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.37% to 12.50 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.19% or 3.65 to $1,927.35 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.97% or 1.37 to hit $68.14 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.79% or 1.33 to trade at $72.81 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 1.01% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 1.20% to 95.53.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.62% at 102.62.