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 0.33%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were HT&E Ltd (AX:HT1), which rose 6.46% or 0.105 points to trade at 1.730 at the close. Janus Henderson Group PLC (AX:JHG) added 4.95% or 2.250 points to end at 47.750 and News Corp B DRC (AX:NWS) was up 4.56% or 0.860 points to 19.700 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN), which lost 4.51% or 0.850 points to trade at 18.000 in late trade. CSR Ltd (AX:CSR) declined 4.38% or 0.200 points to end at 4.370 and Santos Ltd (AX:STO) shed 3.87% or 0.180 points to 4.470.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 622 to 592 and 387 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 9.59% to 12.679 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.17% or 2.23 to $1285.27 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.14% or 0.08 to hit $57.09 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.16% or 0.10 to trade at $63.83 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.04% to 0.7683, while AUD/JPY rose 0.09% to 87.22.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 94.43.