Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Energy, Telecoms Services and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS), which rose 6.15% or 0.040 points to trade at 0.690 at the close. Healthscope (AX:HSO) added 3.81% or 0.090 points to end at 2.450 and ARB Corporation Ltd (AX:ARB) was up 3.38% or 0.530 points to 16.190 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which lost 7.99% or 0.125 points to trade at 1.440 in late trade. Smartgroup Corporation Ltd (AX:SIQ) declined 6.79% or 0.710 points to end at 9.750 and Steadfast Group Ltd (AX:SDF) shed 5.68% or 0.150 points to 2.490.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 554 to 549 and 381 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 1.78% to 13.802.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.20% or 2.65 to $1322.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.11% or 0.06 to hit $53.73 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $60.86 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.46% to 0.7238, while AUD/JPY fell 0.47% to 78.83.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 95.382.