Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Consumer Staples and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX:CGC), which rose 11.85% or 0.730 points to trade at 6.890 at the close. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) added 10.27% or 1.200 points to end at 12.890 and Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) was up 8.54% or 1.880 points to 23.900 in late trade.
Biggest losers included CYBG PLC (AX:CYB), which lost 8.16% or 0.400 points to trade at 4.500 in late trade. Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX:EHL) declined 4.84% or 0.015 points to end at 0.295 and Link Administration Holdings Ltd (AX:LNK) shed 3.09% or 0.240 points to 7.520.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 605 to 518 and 344 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 3.33% to 16.798.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.02% or 0.20 to $1215.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.90% or 0.51 to hit $56.97 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 1.05% or 0.70 to trade at $67.32 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7277, while AUD/JPY fell 0.27% to 82.47.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 96.81.