Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources 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 Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT), which rose 12.30% or 0.390 points to trade at 3.560 at the close. Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) added 9.74% or 0.150 points to end at 1.690 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) was up 5.35% or 0.095 points to 1.870 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Myob Group Ltd (AX:MYO), which lost 6.91% or 0.255 points to trade at 3.435 in late trade. Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL) declined 4.70% or 0.600 points to end at 12.160 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) shed 4.38% or 0.130 points to 2.840.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 670 to 442 and 328 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 8.51% to 12.133.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.04% or 0.55 to $1250.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $54.46 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.03 to trade at $56.61 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.7711, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 87.03.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 101.03.