Aust stocks close lower

The Australian stock market has closed lower as the resources sector came under pressure from Chinese data that printed slightly below expectations.

At the 1615 AEDT official market close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index fell 0.77% to 5,104.2 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index fell 0.71% to 5,109.5 points.

IG analyst Chris Weston said mining stocks outside of gold have struggled to get traction today.

"Resource names have certainly not been assisted by a Chinese market under reasonable pressure, after yesterday’s slightly-below-expectations data dump (industrial production, fixed asset investment and retail sales)," Mr Weston said.