Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Energy, Resources and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Echo Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:EGP), which rose 2.37% or 0.110 points to trade at 4.750 at the close. Trade Me Group Ltd (ASX:TME) added 1.97% or 0.060 points to end at 3.100 and Asciano Ltd (ASX:AIO) was up 1.91% or 0.150 points to 8.000 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which lost 8.12% or 0.560 points to trade at 6.340 in late trade. Greencross Ltd (ASX:GXL) declined 5.70% or 0.340 points to end at 5.620 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) shed 5.47% or 0.070 points to 1.210.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 553 to 388 and 176 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 10.24% to 19.235.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.30% or 3.50 to $1167.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.50% or 0.28 to hit $56.65 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.34% or 0.21 to trade at $61.86 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.62% to 0.7584, while AUD/JPY fell 0.63% to 93.34.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.07% at 96.22.