Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.14%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.14%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Challenger Ltd (AX: CGF ), which rose 6.99% or 0.860 points to trade at 13.170 at the close. Eclipx Group Ltd (AX: ECX ) added 4.82% or 0.160 points to end at 3.480 and CSL Ltd (AX: CSL ) was up 4.16% or 7.31 points to 183.00 in late trade.

Biggest losers included NIB Holdings (AX: NHF ), which lost 5.20% or 0.305 points to trade at 5.555 in late trade. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ) declined 4.45% or 0.150 points to end at 3.220 and IPH Ltd (AX: IPH ) shed 4.39% or 0.195 points to 4.245.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 625 to 587 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 0.87% to 11.610.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.04% or 0.50 to $1288.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.18% or 0.13 to hit $71.62 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.30% or 0.24 to trade at $79.54 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7519, while AUD/JPY rose 0.16% to 83.35.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 93.33.