Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Consumer Discretionary and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Healthscope (AX:HSO), which rose 6.74% or 0.120 points to trade at 1.900 at the close. Medibank Private Ltd (AX:MPL) added 4.28% or 0.130 points to end at 3.170 and Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC) was up 3.97% or 0.075 points to 1.965 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Star Entertainment Group Ltd (AX:SGR), which lost 6.28% or 0.380 points to trade at 5.670 in late trade. IPH Ltd (AX:IPH) declined 6.10% or 0.250 points to end at 3.850 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) shed 5.14% or 0.180 points to 3.320.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 617 to 569 and 365 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 2.18% to 17.245.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.41% or 5.60 to $1360.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.64% or 0.39 to hit $61.73 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.61% or 0.39 to trade at $64.72 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.29% to 0.7967, while AUD/JPY fell 0.05% to 84.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.28% at 88.22.