Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Energy, Healthcare and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.95%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM), which rose 4.46% or 0.210 points to trade at 4.920 at the close. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) added 3.50% or 0.070 points to end at 2.070 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 2.43% or 0.090 points to 3.790 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Tassal Group Ltd (AX:TGR), which lost 5.91% or 0.230 points to trade at 3.660 in late trade. Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT) declined 5.73% or 0.260 points to end at 4.280 and Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN) shed 3.83% or 0.100 points to 2.510.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 675 to 452 and 317 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 11.13% to 14.928 a new 6-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.27% or 3.36 to $1219.94 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.27% or 0.58 to hit $44.94 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.16% or 0.56 to trade at $47.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7585, while AUD/JPY rose 0.43% to 86.25.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 95.76.