Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Gold and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 6.13% or 0.195 points to trade at 3.375 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) added 4.83% or 0.610 points to end at 13.230 and Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd (AX:CWY) was up 4.44% or 0.050 points to 1.175 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Healthscope (AX:HSO), which lost 18.43% or 0.540 points to trade at 2.390 in late trade. Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (AX:SKC) declined 11.69% or 0.470 points to end at 3.550 and Ramsay Health Care Ltd (AX:RHC) shed 5.80% or 4.610 points to 74.860.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 569 to 474 and 305 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 0.81% to 12.814.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.31% or 3.95 to $1263.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.55% or 0.28 to hit $50.35 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.43% or 0.22 to trade at $51.16 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7635, while AUD/JPY rose 0.13% to 79.38.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.21% at 98.50.