Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aveo Group (AX:AOG), which rose 4.29% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.700 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 4.23% or 0.180 points to end at 4.440 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) was up 3.97% or 0.550 points to 14.420 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (AX:CCL), which lost 14.75% or 1.490 points to trade at 8.610 in late trade. Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (AX:ALL) declined 6.33% or 1.610 points to end at 23.830 and Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API) shed 5.79% or 0.090 points to 1.465.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 652 to 507 and 351 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 12.60% to 17.264.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.04% or 0.50 to $1229.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.06% or 0.03 to hit $51.48 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.25% or 0.15 to trade at $60.06 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.07% to 0.7314, while AUD/JPY fell 0.14% to 82.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.00% at 96.697.