Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the IT, Energy and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.59%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN), which rose 6.37% or 0.100 points to trade at 1.670 at the close. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) added 4.86% or 0.125 points to end at 2.695 and Growthpoint Properties Australia (AX:GOZ) was up 4.44% or 0.140 points to 3.290 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU), which lost 6.08% or 0.375 points to trade at 5.795 in late trade. Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV) declined 5.41% or 0.230 points to end at 4.020 and Ozforex Grp (AX:OFX) shed 4.67% or 0.098 points to 1.992.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 512 to 423 and 346 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 3.80% to 18.351.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.02% or 0.20 to $1237.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 2.12% or 0.79 to hit $38.05 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.57% or 0.62 to trade at $40.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.39% to 0.7535, while AUD/JPY rose 0.86% to 81.91.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.08% at 94.58.