Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Healthcare and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG), which rose 3.24% or 0.170 points to trade at 5.410 at the close. Brickworks Ltd (AX:BKW) added 2.68% or 0.355 points to end at 13.605 and Ioof Holdings Ltd (AX:IFL) was up 1.17% or 0.115 points to 9.975 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Webjet Ltd (AX:WEB), which lost 6.47% or 0.820 points to trade at 11.850 in late trade. Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) declined 5.67% or 0.080 points to end at 1.330 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) shed 4.17% or 0.175 points to 4.025.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 731 to 414 and 331 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 10.90% to 13.482.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.02% or 0.22 to $1259.78 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.18% or 0.09 to hit $48.95 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.09 to trade at $51.40 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.04% to 0.7970, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 88.44.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 93.66.