Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Financials, Gold and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.79%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 4.18% or 0.120 points to trade at 2.990 at the close. Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX) added 4.01% or 0.220 points to end at 5.700 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) was up 2.92% or 0.038 points to 1.323 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which lost 19.21% or 0.630 points to trade at 2.650 in late trade. Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) declined 10.15% or 0.470 points to end at 4.160 and Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) shed 8.41% or 0.370 points to 4.030.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 591 to 454 and 353 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 3.97% to 12.662.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.55% or 6.65 to $1193.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.08% or 0.04 to hit $53.05 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $56.02 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.7480, while AUD/JPY rose 0.26% to 86.06.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.03% at 101.49.