Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.25%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the IT , Consumer Staples and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.25%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX: SAR ), which rose 4.97% or 0.150 points to trade at 3.170 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (AX: SBM ) added 4.61% or 0.220 points to end at 4.990 and Healius Ltd (AX: HLS ) was up 4.56% or 0.120 points to 2.750 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (AX: SDA ), which lost 5.76% or 0.170 points to trade at 2.780 in late trade. Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX: AHG ) declined 5.28% or 0.080 points to end at 1.435 and Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX: EHL ) shed 4.53% or 0.090 points to 1.895.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 619 to 415 and 286 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 0.28% to 18.624.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.19% or 2.45 to $1297.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.53% or 0.25 to hit $47.34 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.41% or 0.23 to trade at $56.18 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.21% to 0.7019, while AUD/JPY rose 0.79% to 76.00.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 95.963.