Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.26%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.26%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (AX: MTS ), which rose 3.80% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.730 at the close. Infigen Energy (AX: IFN ) added 3.51% or 0.020 points to end at 0.590 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX: A2M ) was up 3.51% or 0.330 points to 9.730 in late trade.

Biggest losers included James Hardie Industries PLC (AX: JHX ), which lost 7.80% or 1.810 points to trade at 21.410 in late trade. Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX: SGM ) declined 4.22% or 0.715 points to end at 16.225 and G8 Education Ltd (AX: GEM ) shed 3.31% or 0.080 points to 2.340.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 622 to 577 and 362 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 11.45% to 9.671 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.42% or 5.10 to $1214.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.21% or 0.14 to hit $66.67 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.18% or 0.13 to trade at $71.94 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.61% to 0.7328, while AUD/JPY fell 0.68% to 81.34.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.41% at 95.85.