Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Energy, IT and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.11%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which rose 11.32% or 0.240 points to trade at 2.360 at the close. Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) added 4.90% or 0.025 points to end at 0.535 and Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX:CGC) was up 4.65% or 0.290 points to 6.520 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Lend Lease Group (AX:LLC), which lost 18.68% or 3.260 points to trade at 14.190 in late trade. Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (AX:CTD) declined 8.41% or 1.930 points to end at 21.020 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) shed 7.23% or 0.340 points to 4.360.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 567 to 534 and 380 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 1.45% to 14.088.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.36% or 4.40 to $1220.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.10% or 0.06 to hit $60.61 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $70.71 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.14% to 0.7247, while AUD/JPY fell 0.27% to 82.55.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 96.57.