Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.66%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Infigen Energy (AX:IFN), which rose 6.99% or 0.065 points to trade at 0.995 at the close. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) added 4.58% or 0.028 points to end at 0.627 and CSL Ltd (AX:CSL) was up 2.99% or 3.330 points to 114.830 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX:SGM), which lost 5.74% or 0.740 points to trade at 12.160 in late trade. South32 Ltd (AX:S32) declined 4.68% or 0.130 points to end at 2.650 and Cimic Group Ltd (AX:CIM) shed 4.10% or 1.470 points to 34.350.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 584 to 496 and 300 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 0.95% to 13.377.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.42% or 5.00 to $1206.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.35% or 0.18 to hit $52.30 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.44% or 0.24 to trade at $54.40 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.17% to 0.7574, while AUD/JPY rose 0.02% to 86.89.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.15% at 100.95.