Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.08%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.08%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS), which rose 7.19% or 0.23 points to trade at 3.43 at the close. Meanwhile, South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) added 5.78% or 0.29 points to end at 5.31 and Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) was up 3.57% or 1.88 points to 54.59 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which fell 6.05% or 0.23 points to trade at 3.57 at the close. Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:PRU) declined 5.36% or 0.11 points to end at 1.86 and Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) was down 4.84% or 1.53 points to 30.05.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 715 to 706 and 407 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 8.63% to 13.14.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.92% or 18.00 to $1,931.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.53% or 1.53 to hit $98.75 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 1.17% or 1.23 to trade at $103.48 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 0.75, while AUD/JPY rose 0.84% to 91.78.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.21% at 98.57.