Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Financials, Materials and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 2.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG), which rose 14.80% or 0.370 points to trade at 2.870 at the close. Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX:MYR) added 3.45% or 0.045 points to end at 1.350 and Slater & Gordon Ltd (ASX:SGH) was up 3.15% or 0.100 points to 3.270 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Orica Ltd (ASX:ORI), which lost 16.94% or 3.190 points to trade at 15.640 in late trade. ANZ Banking Group (ASX:ANZ) declined 7.49% or 2.440 points to end at 30.140 and Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX:IPL) shed 6.41% or 0.230 points to 3.360.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 637 to 328 and 190 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 9.24% to 17.965.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.50% or 5.50 to $1095.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.39% or 0.17 to hit $44.84 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.48% or 0.24 to trade at $49.76 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.41% to 0.7375, while AUD/JPY rose 0.44% to 92.03.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.09% at 97.97.