Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Oil Search Ltd (ASX:OSH), which rose 3.92% or 0.280 points to trade at 7.430 at the close. Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:SIG) added 2.52% or 0.015 points to end at 0.610 and Emeco Holdings Ltd (ASX:EHL) was up 2.46% or 0.050 points to 2.080 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nearmap Ltd (ASX:NEA), which lost 9.49% or 0.350 points to trade at 3.340 in late trade. Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV) declined 8.16% or 2.940 points to end at 33.110 and Hub24 Ltd (ASX:HUB) shed 5.04% or 0.600 points to 11.300.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 593 to 540 and 401 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 3.63% to 10.846.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.14% or 1.95 to $1408.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.75% or 0.45 to hit $60.65 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.83% or 0.55 to trade at $67.07 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.38% to 0.6999, while AUD/JPY rose 0.26% to 75.84.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 96.553.