Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Utilities, Telecoms Services and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG), which rose 5.22% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.410 at the close. UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL) added 5.08% or 0.100 points to end at 2.070 and Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) was up 3.85% or 0.020 points to 0.540 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY), which lost 6.67% or 0.010 points to trade at 0.140 in late trade. CSR Ltd (ASX:CSR) declined 5.78% or 0.170 points to end at 2.770 and M2 Telecommunications Group Ltd (ASX:MTU) shed 4.91% or 0.490 points to 9.480.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 452 to 433 and 144 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 2.56% to 24.901.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.40% or 4.50 to $1109.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 1.92% or 0.86 to hit $45.60 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 1.43% or 0.68 to trade at $48.37 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.24% to 0.7047, while AUD/JPY rose 0.32% to 84.57.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.01% at 96.36.