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 fell 0.93%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM), which rose 10.78% or 0.118 points to trade at 1.208 at the close. Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS) added 3.98% or 0.080 points to end at 2.090 and Corp Trav F (AX:CTD) was up 2.81% or 0.410 points to 15.020 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG), which lost 21.40% or 0.230 points to trade at 0.845 in late trade. Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR) declined 6.54% or 0.380 points to end at 5.430 and Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL) shed 6.17% or 9.180 points to 139.680.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 581 to 442 and 335 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 0.90% to 16.230.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.35% or 4.50 to $1268.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.73% or 0.37 to hit $50.19 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.64% or 0.33 to trade at $51.62 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.19% to 0.7416, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 79.39.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.10% at 94.19.