BUZZ-Australia's St Barbara at over 1-1/2 yr low after completing share issuance

** Shares of St Barbara fall as much as 13.3% to A$2.88, their lowest since Oct. 2017

** The gold miner completed the institutional component of its share issuance on Friday, raising about A$355 mln ($244.49 million)

** The offer price of A$2.89 a share was at a 10.1% discount to its last closing level

** The issuance was carried out to partly fund its C$722 mln ($536.17 million) takeover of smaller Canadian peer Atlantic Gold Corp

** Stock posts its biggest intraday pct decline since March 22

** The Aussie gold index was 1.8 pct lower, with St Barbara shares leading the fall

** About 7.9 mln shares change hands, compared with the 30-day average of 3.8 mln

** SBM shares see their busiest trading day since March-end ($1 = 1.3466 Canadian dollars) ($1 = 1.4520 Australian dollars) (Reuters Messaging: rushil.dutta.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)