Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Financials, Energy and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.96%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which rose 2.99% or 0.570 points to trade at 19.630 at the close. Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) added 2.10% or 0.160 points to end at 7.780 and Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE) was up 1.76% or 0.040 points to 2.310 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Infigen Energy Ltd (AX:IFN), which lost 6.54% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.500 in late trade. Ardent Leisure Ltd (AX:ALG) declined 5.79% or 0.090 points to end at 1.465 and Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR) shed 5.69% or 0.070 points to 1.160.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 688 to 447 and 358 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 10.47% to 13.182.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.38% or 4.95 to $1291.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.62% or 0.35 to hit $56.31 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.66% or 0.44 to trade at $65.86 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.06% to 0.7009, while AUD/JPY fell 0.50% to 77.86.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 97.455.