Australian Stock Market Update

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.24% to hit a new 3-month low.

Best Performers

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were:
– Codan Ltd (ASX:CDA), which rose 3.45% or 0.54 points to trade at 16.18 at the close.
– Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) added 2.50% or 0.03 points to end at 1.02.
– AGL Energy Ltd (ASX:AGL) was up 2.23% or 0.24 points to 10.98 in late trade.

Worst Performers

The worst performers of the session were:
– Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 20.66% or 0.63 points to trade at 2.42 at the close.
– Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:WES) declined 5.00% or 3.66 points to end at 69.56.
– Seek Ltd (ASX:SEK) was down 4.57% or 1.07 points to 22.34.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 599 to 449, and 458 ended unchanged.

Market Volatility

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.87% to 11.70.

Commodities Update

• Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.17% or 4.51 to $2,612.61 a troy ounce.
• Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.40% or 0.28 to hit $68.95 a barrel.
• February Brent oil contract fell 0.63% or 0.46 to trade at $72.42 a barrel.

Currency Update

• AUD/USD was unchanged at 0.62.
• AUD/JPY fell 0.38% to 97.80.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 108.20.