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 lost 0.69%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API), which rose 7.18% or 0.135 points to trade at 2.015 at the close. Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX) added 6.34% or 0.400 points to end at 6.710 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) was up 5.59% or 0.043 points to 0.802 in late trade.
Biggest losers included GWA Group Ltd (AX:GWA), which lost 9.63% or 0.235 points to trade at 2.205 in late trade. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) declined 7.18% or 0.260 points to end at 3.360 and Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) shed 6.22% or 0.440 points to 6.630.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 539 to 466 and 326 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 3.28% to 16.509.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.16% or 2.00 to $1248.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.44% or 0.62 to hit $43.80 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.26% or 0.56 to trade at $45.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.32% to 0.7762, while AUD/JPY rose 1.11% to 85.63.
The US Dollar Index was unchanged 0.00% at 94.62.