Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.30%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.30%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 4.55% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.81 at the close. Meanwhile, Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) added 4.46% or 0.06 points to end at 1.41 and Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) was up 2.67% or 0.04 points to 1.35 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which fell 7.22% or 0.76 points to trade at 9.76 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) declined 3.85% or 0.02 points to end at 0.50 and Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) was down 3.85% or 0.26 points to 6.49.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 685 to 477 and 373 ended unchanged.

Shares in Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) rose to 52-week highs; up 2.67% or 0.04 to 1.35.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.42% to 12.45.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.39% or 7.05 to $1,816.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.49% or 0.39 to hit $79.14 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.32% or 0.27 to trade at $84.41 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.45% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.80% to 90.54.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.00% at 103.90.