Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Energy, Gold and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.38%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Tatts Group Ltd (ASX:TTS), which rose 6.08% or 0.230 points to trade at 4.010 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 5.82% or 0.230 points to end at 4.180 and Cardno Ltd (ASX:CDD) was up 5.81% or 0.180 points to 3.280 in late trade.
Biggest losers included STW Communications Group Ltd (ASX:SGN), which lost 22.93% or 0.235 points to trade at 0.790 in late trade. Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX:PTM) declined 12.66% or 1.170 points to end at 8.070 and Transpacific Industries Group Ltd (ASX:TPI) shed 11.17% or 0.100 points to 0.795.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 356 to 240 and 30 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 1.17% to 15.061.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to $1207.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 0.76% or 0.40 to hit $52.23 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.82% or 0.49 to trade at $60.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.17% to 0.7806, while AUD/JPY rose 0.15% to 92.81.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 94.46.