Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ), which rose 4.46% or 0.320 points to trade at 7.500 at the close. Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) added 4.05% or 0.090 points to end at 2.310 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was up 3.50% or 0.065 points to 1.920 in late trade.
Biggest losers included CSR Ltd (AX:CSR), which lost 5.02% or 0.210 points to trade at 3.970 in late trade. Perpetual Ltd (AX:PPT) declined 4.53% or 2.460 points to end at 51.810 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) shed 4.22% or 0.125 points to 2.835.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 596 to 501 and 353 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 0.88% to 12.428.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.00% or 0.06 to $1245.56 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to hit $46.92 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $49.31 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.59% to 0.7910, while AUD/JPY fell 0.63% to 88.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 94.04.