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 declined 0.07%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN), which rose 8.70% or 0.45 points to trade at 5.62 at the close. Meanwhile, Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) added 4.91% or 0.04 points to end at 0.86 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was up 4.51% or 0.12 points to 2.78 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were NIB Holdings (ASX:NHF), which fell 11.98% or 0.90 points to trade at 6.61 at the close. Graincorp Ltd (ASX:GNC) declined 6.28% or 0.55 points to end at 8.21 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) was down 4.45% or 0.23 points to 4.94.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 673 to 587 and 363 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.65% to 19.49.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.10% or 1.65 to $1,675.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.48% or 0.42 to hit $87.69 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.61 to trade at $93.06 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.04% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 92.17.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 113.22.