Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 9.84% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.335 at the close. Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) added 4.64% or 0.068 points to end at 1.522 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) was up 3.99% or 0.110 points to 2.870 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU), which lost 5.62% or 0.330 points to trade at 5.540 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) declined 4.65% or 0.190 points to end at 3.900 and Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) shed 4.25% or 0.170 points to 3.830.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 533 to 498 and 315 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 down 5.34% to 14.125.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.16% or 1.95 to $1255.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.63% or 0.32 to hit $50.76 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.17% or 0.09 to trade at $52.12 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7576, while AUD/JPY rose 0.41% to 78.81.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.30% at 97.82.