Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.36%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (AX:TWE), which rose 4.25% or 0.605 points to trade at 14.850 at the close. Domino'S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (AX:DMP) added 3.15% or 1.300 points to end at 42.520 and Healius Ltd (AX:HLS) was up 2.99% or 0.080 points to 2.760 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL), which lost 4.25% or 0.210 points to trade at 4.730 in late trade. Pendal Group Ltd (AX:PDL) declined 3.56% or 0.280 points to end at 7.580 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) shed 3.48% or 0.080 points to 2.220.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 558 to 514 and 355 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 2.20% to 14.858 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.56% or 7.20 to $1294.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to hit $52.59 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.05 to trade at $61.63 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.39% to 0.7213, while AUD/JPY rose 0.28% to 78.11.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 94.947.