Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND), which rose 4.11% or 0.39 points to trade at 9.89 at the close. Resmed Inc (ASX:RMD) added 3.61% or 0.300 points to end at 8.610 and Lend Lease Group (ASX:LLC) was up 3.33% or 0.550 points to 17.050 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL), which lost 26.70% or 0.510 points to trade at 1.400 in late trade. Beadell Resources Ltd (ASX:BDR) declined 8.20% or 0.025 points to end at 0.280 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) shed 6.11% or 0.140 points to 2.150.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 299 to 278 and 46 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 1.52% to 13.645.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.17% or 2.00 to $1198.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 0.64% or 0.33 to hit $51.09 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.59% or 0.35 to trade at $61.02 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.22% to 0.7800, while AUD/JPY rose 0.12% to 93.61.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 96.39.