Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Materials and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 5.84% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.080 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) added 5.12% or 0.220 points to end at 4.520 and Syrah Res F (AX:SYR) was up 4.53% or 0.120 points to 2.770 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Vocus Fpo (AX:VOC), which lost 4.27% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.810 in late trade. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) declined 3.17% or 0.200 points to end at 6.100 and Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR) shed 3.09% or 0.090 points to 2.820.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 585 to 501 and 348 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 0.60% to 12.214.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.14% or 14.35 to $1267.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.61% or 0.83 to hit $52.53 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.40% or 0.77 to trade at $55.66 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.30% to 0.7523, while AUD/JPY fell 0.63% to 83.07.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 100.52.