Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Energy and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT), which rose 3.03% or 0.120 points to trade at 4.080 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) added 2.44% or 0.100 points to end at 4.200 and Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) was up 2.42% or 0.180 points to 7.620 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN), which lost 3.13% or 0.100 points to trade at 3.100 in late trade. Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ) declined 2.84% or 0.030 points to end at 1.025 and Goodman Group (AX:GMG) shed 2.40% or 0.190 points to 7.740.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 540 to 533 and 356 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 0.15% to 11.202.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.30% or 3.70 to $1241.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.52% or 0.26 to hit $50.09 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.64% or 0.34 to trade at $52.79 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.7643, while AUD/JPY fell 0.04% to 85.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 100.41.