Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Utilities, Resources and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.54%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW), which rose 3.83% or 1.010 points to trade at 27.390 at the close. Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT) added 3.32% or 1.130 points to end at 35.200 and Ozforex Grp (ASX:OFX) was up 2.75% or 0.060 points to 2.240 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN), which lost 11.34% or 0.195 points to trade at 1.525 in late trade. Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG) declined 7.25% or 0.025 points to end at 0.320 and Worleyparsons Ltd (ASX:WOR) shed 7.17% or 0.780 points to 10.100.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 647 to 399 and 207 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 9.03% to 17.318.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.02% or 0.20 to $1172.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.09% or 0.06 to hit $59.65 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.33% or 0.21 to trade at $63.41 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.50% to 0.7702, while AUD/JPY fell 0.61% to 95.07.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 95.42.