Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Industrials and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.22% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which rose 7.85% or 0.190 points to trade at 2.610 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 5.86% or 0.170 points to end at 3.070 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) was up 5.42% or 0.130 points to 2.530 in late trade.
Biggest losers included AMP Ltd (AX:AMP), which lost 9.13% or 0.470 points to trade at 4.680 in late trade. Ardent Leisure Group (AX:AAD) declined 5.12% or 0.110 points to end at 2.040 and Carsales.Com Ltd (AX:CAR) shed 4.33% or 0.500 points to 11.050.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 574 to 483 and 320 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.93% to 14.831.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.00% or 0.05 to $1269.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to hit $49.72 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.04% or 0.02 to trade at $50.49 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7590, while AUD/JPY rose 0.01% to 79.93.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 98.88.