Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Consumer Staples and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN), which rose 4.71% or 0.085 points to trade at 1.890 at the close. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd (AX:FPH) added 3.68% or 0.290 points to end at 8.160 and CSR Ltd (AX:CSR) was up 3.33% or 0.140 points to 4.340 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which lost 43.28% or 5.250 points to trade at 6.880 in late trade. A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) declined 9.76% or 0.240 points to end at 2.220 and Bega Cheese Ltd (AX:BGA) shed 6.26% or 0.310 points to 4.640.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 690 to 409 and 337 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 up 1.62% to 12.550.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.59% or 6.95 to $1176.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.82% or 0.42 to hit $50.64 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 1.19% or 0.64 to trade at $53.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.09% to 0.7409, while AUD/JPY fell 0.18% to 84.47.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.18% at 100.84.