Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Healthcare, Energy and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.40% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 9.13% or 0.220 points to trade at 2.630 at the close. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS) added 8.16% or 0.058 points to end at 0.762 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) was up 6.07% or 0.033 points to 0.568 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which lost 6.06% or 0.970 points to trade at 15.030 in late trade. Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL) declined 3.69% or 0.050 points to end at 1.305 and Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT) shed 3.69% or 0.230 points to 6.000.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 705 to 494 and 363 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 4.00% to 14.070.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.13% or 1.60 to $1205.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.13% or 0.09 to hit $67.86 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $76.48 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.64% to 0.7152, while AUD/JPY fell 0.79% to 79.09.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 94.98.