Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX:APO), which rose 5.93% or 0.275 points to trade at 4.915 at the close. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) added 5.59% or 0.265 points to end at 5.005 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was up 4.84% or 0.140 points to 3.030 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which lost 4.57% or 0.043 points to trade at 0.887 in late trade. Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) declined 3.56% or 0.730 points to end at 19.780 and Boral Ltd. (AX:BLD) shed 2.81% or 0.210 points to 7.270.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 607 to 599 and 377 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 2.08% to 14.895.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.14% or 1.90 to $1330.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.82% or 0.52 to hit $63.02 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.78% or 0.53 to trade at $67.80 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7674, while AUD/JPY fell 0.18% to 82.36.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 90.19.