Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Gold and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 7.03% or 0.180 points to trade at 2.740 at the close. Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) added 3.11% or 0.050 points to end at 1.660 and Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) was up 2.03% or 0.080 points to 4.020 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE), which lost 6.25% or 0.200 points to trade at 3.000 in late trade. Infigen Energy (AX:IFN) declined 5.52% or 0.045 points to end at 0.770 and Trade Me Group Ltd (AX:TME) shed 5.26% or 0.280 points to 5.040.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 612 to 437 and 314 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 2.41% to 14.106.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.12% or 1.45 to $1254.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.12% or 0.06 to hit $50.50 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.08% or 0.04 to trade at $52.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.17% to 0.7572, while AUD/JPY fell 0.20% to 78.69.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.35% at 97.00.