Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.10%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Metals & Mining , Gold and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.10%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (AX: APX ), which rose 6.54% or 0.710 points to trade at 11.570 at the close. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX: PLS ) added 6.51% or 0.055 points to end at 0.900 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX: APT ) was up 4.07% or 0.560 points to 14.310 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX: LYC ), which lost 4.89% or 0.110 points to trade at 2.140 in late trade. Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX: AHG ) declined 4.17% or 0.110 points to end at 2.530 and G8 Education Ltd (AX: GEM ) shed 3.97% or 0.100 points to 2.420.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 676 to 578 and 371 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 2.91% to 12.225.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.34% or 4.20 to $1224.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.83% or 0.57 to hit $68.39 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.22 to trade at $73.23 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.65% to 0.7407, while AUD/JPY rose 0.24% to 82.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 94.87.