Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.70%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Isentia Group Ltd (AX:ISD), which rose 4.22% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.730 at the close. Telstra Corporation Ltd. (AX:TLS) added 4.02% or 0.170 points to end at 4.400 and Macquarie Group Ltd (AX:MQG) was up 3.41% or 3.135 points to 95.055 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL), which lost 7.01% or 0.830 points to trade at 11.010 in late trade. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) declined 6.50% or 0.180 points to end at 2.590 and Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) shed 6.32% or 0.605 points to 8.965.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 672 to 444 and 355 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 2.42% to 12.253.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.49% or 5.99 to $1234.59 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 2.59% or 1.18 to hit $44.34 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 2.27% or 1.10 to trade at $47.28 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.47% to 0.7374, while AUD/JPY fell 0.67% to 82.78.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 98.64.