Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.10%

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd $G8 Education Ltd (GEM.AU)$ , which rose 3.29% or 0.04 points to trade at 1.26 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd $Whitehaven Coal Ltd (WHC.AU)$ added 2.66% or 0.17 points to end at 6.57 and Inghams Group Ltd $Inghams Group Ltd (ING.AU)$ was up 2.56% or 0.09 points to 3.61 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd $Appen Ltd (APX.AU)$ , which fell 10.53% or 0.08 points to trade at 0.68 at the close. South32 Ltd $ASX Ltd (ASX.AU)$ declined 4.33% or 0.14 points to end at 2.98 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd was down 4.07% or 0.06 points to 1.29. $S&P/ASX 200 (.XJO.AU)$

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 631 to 542 and 346 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.62% to 10.38 a new 1-month low.