Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.05%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 6.36% or 0.140 points to trade at 2.340 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) added 6.13% or 0.065 points to end at 1.125 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) was up 5.29% or 0.120 points to 2.390 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX:EHL), which lost 5.41% or 0.020 points to trade at 0.350 in late trade. Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (AX:TWE) declined 3.71% or 0.630 points to end at 16.340 and Seven Group Holdings Ltd (AX:SVW) shed 3.69% or 0.730 points to 19.060.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 644 to 502 and 349 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 1.29% to 16.451.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.14% or 1.70 to $1231.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.47% or 0.32 to hit $68.97 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.47% or 0.37 to trade at $79.66 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.21% to 0.7114, while AUD/JPY rose 0.43% to 80.00.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 95.68.