Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Consumer Discretionary and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.43%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ozforex Grp (ASX:OFX), which rose 4.13% or 0.090 points to trade at 2.270 at the close. South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) added 2.90% or 0.050 points to end at 1.775 and APA Group (ASX:APA) was up 2.58% or 0.220 points to 8.760 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Drillsearch Energy Ltd (ASX:DLS), which lost 11.44% or 0.115 points to trade at 0.890 in late trade. Slater & Gordon Ltd (ASX:SGH) declined 7.93% or 0.310 points to end at 3.600 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) shed 7.76% or 0.170 points to 2.020.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 559 to 396 and 184 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 0.18% to 15.946.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.90% or 9.80 to $1084.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.54% or 0.26 to hit $48.71 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.08 to trade at $55.35 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.72% to 0.7302, while AUD/JPY fell 0.74% to 90.46.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.07% at 97.36.