Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Utilities, Energy and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH), which rose 11.35% or 3.33 points to trade at 32.67 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 6.82% or 0.09 points to end at 1.41 and IPH Ltd (ASX:IPH) was up 6.25% or 0.38 points to 6.46 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Inghams Group Ltd (ASX:ING), which lost 19.90% or 0.77 points to trade at 3.10 in late trade. Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX:SPK) declined 7.40% or 0.29 points to end at 3.63 and Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU) shed 6.71% or 0.20 points to 2.78.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 594 to 505 and 437 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 2.02% to 11.69.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.49% or 12.25 to $2,528.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.10% or 0.07 to hit $73.08 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $77.28 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.23% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.32% to 97.81.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.16% at 101.23.