Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Gold, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.05%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 7.48% or 0.220 points to trade at 3.160 at the close. Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) added 4.21% or 0.090 points to end at 2.230 and CSR Ltd (AX:CSR) was up 4.04% or 0.190 points to 4.890 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM), which lost 6.81% or 0.340 points to trade at 4.650 in late trade. A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) declined 5.49% or 0.180 points to end at 3.100 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) shed 4.92% or 0.220 points to 4.250.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 566 to 545 and 356 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 4.05% to 11.219.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.04% or 0.47 to $1266.37 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.06% or 0.52 to hit $49.49 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.96% or 0.50 to trade at $52.32 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.11% to 0.7474, while AUD/JPY rose 0.07% to 83.09.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 99.08.