Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Resources and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 3.30% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN), which rose 13.93% or 0.305 points to trade at 2.495 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 9.82% or 0.280 points to end at 3.130 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) was up 9.51% or 0.125 points to 1.440 in late trade.
Biggest losers included CYBG PLC (AX:CYB), which lost 17.42% or 0.965 points to trade at 4.575 in late trade. BT Investment Management Ltd (AX:BTT) declined 13.79% or 1.400 points to end at 8.750 and Henderson Group PLC (AX:HGG) shed 11.44% or 0.580 points to 4.490.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 939 to 227 and 288 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 14.04% to 24.713 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 4.82% or 60.90 to $1324.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 5.11% or 2.56 to hit $47.55 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 5.09% or 2.59 to trade at $48.32 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 3.10% to 0.7381, while AUD/JPY fell 6.57% to 75.55.
The US Dollar Index was up 2.86% at 96.00.