Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Materials and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Seek Ltd (AX:SEK), which rose 5.63% or 0.840 points to trade at 15.770 at the close. Link Administration Holdings Ltd (AX:LNK) added 4.17% or 0.300 points to end at 7.500 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) was up 2.89% or 0.050 points to 1.780 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR), which lost 5.63% or 0.170 points to trade at 2.850 in late trade. Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN) declined 4.95% or 0.670 points to end at 12.870 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) shed 4.45% or 0.033 points to 0.698.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 622 to 499 and 340 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 5.35% to 10.866 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.18% or 2.25 to $1239.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.13% or 0.07 to hit $53.43 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.11 to trade at $55.76 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.7712, while AUD/JPY rose 0.37% to 87.44.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 100.47.