Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.07%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.07%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 7.10% or 0.07 points to trade at 0.98 at the close. Meanwhile, Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX:IPL) added 5.88% or 0.22 points to end at 3.96 and Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN) was up 5.07% or 0.17 points to 3.52 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS), which fell 8.70% or 0.46 points to trade at 4.83 at the close. Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) declined 8.20% or 0.75 points to end at 8.40 and IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) was down 7.36% or 1.22 points to 15.36.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 677 to 639 and 356 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.75% to 15.75.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.37% or 6.55 to $1,783.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.36% or 0.31 to hit $85.56 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.05 to trade at $93.09 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.87% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.52% to 94.14.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.32% at 106.19.