Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Information Technology, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.61%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Iinet Ltd (ASX:IIN), which rose 24.82% or 1.690 points to trade at 8.500 at the close. TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX:TPM) added 17.70% or 1.370 points to end at 9.110 and Vocus Fpo (ASX:VOC) was up 8.70% or 0.49 points to 6.12 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN), which lost 4.24% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.790 in late trade. Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX:LYC) declined 3.92% or 0.002 points to end at 0.049 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) shed 3.44% or 0.055 points to 1.545.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 292 to 285 and 41 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 5.83% to 14.811.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.71% or 8.20 to $1160.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 0.37% or 0.17 to hit $47.23 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.34% or 0.20 to trade at $57.28 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.43% to 0.7675, while AUD/JPY fell 0.30% to 93.22.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.30% at 99.42.