Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.43%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.43%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which rose 25.00% or 0.45 points to trade at 2.25 at the close. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 11.48% or 0.07 points to end at 0.68 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was up 9.09% or 0.04 points to 0.48 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:WDS), which fell 4.37% or 1.39 points to trade at 30.45 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) declined 4.12% or 1.99 points to end at 46.28 and Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) was down 3.69% or 0.05 points to 1.30.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 884 to 467 and 343 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.08% to 18.97.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.62% or 11.25 to $1,796.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.32% or 0.34 to hit $105.42 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.13% or 0.14 to trade at $108.89 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 1.38% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 1.79% to 91.99.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.22% at 104.70.