Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.56%

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At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.56%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pendal Group Ltd (ASX:PDL), which rose 7.79% or 0.32 points to trade at 4.43 at the close. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 7.60% or 0.07 points to end at 0.92 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) was up 5.25% or 0.31 points to 6.21 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO), which fell 6.02% or 5.30 points to trade at 82.73 at the close. Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) declined 5.99% or 0.16 points to end at 2.51 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was down 5.51% or 0.04 points to 0.60.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 633 to 627 and 405 ended unchanged.

Shares in Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) rose to 5-year highs; gaining 5.25% or 0.31 to 6.21. Shares in Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) fell to all time lows; losing 5.51% or 0.04 to 0.60.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.56% to 17.27.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.17% or 2.95 to $1,707.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.42% or 0.42 to hit $99.84 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.38% or 0.40 to trade at $106.67 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.83% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY rose 0.61% to 94.66.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.47% at 106.73.