At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.91%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Spotless Fp (AX:SPO), which rose 7.51% or 0.080 points to trade at 1.145 at the close. Meanwhile, Qantas Airways Ltd (AX:QAN) added 4.89% or 0.180 points to end at 3.860 and Transpacific Industries Group Ltd (AX:TPI) was up 4.48% or 0.030 points to 0.700 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Oil Search Ltd (AX:OSH), which fell 16.36% or 1.230 points to trade at 6.290 at the close. Santos Ltd (AX:STO) declined 13.12% or 0.500 points to end at 3.310 and Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH) was down 12.61% or 0.140 points to 0.970.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 630 to 345 and 144 ended unchanged.
Shares in Santos Ltd (AX:STO) fell to 5-year lows; losing 13.12% or 0.500 to 3.310.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.40% to 18.898.
Gold for February delivery was down 0.20% or 2.20 to $1073.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.12% or 0.04 to hit $37.70 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.52% or 0.21 to trade at $40.94 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.47% to 0.7234, while AUD/JPY fell 0.69% to 89.06.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.14% at 98.60.
