Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.89%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Energy , Telecoms Services and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.89%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Evolution Mining Ltd (AX: EVN ), which rose 4.87% or 0.130 points to trade at 2.800 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (AX: RSG ) added 4.25% or 0.045 points to end at 1.105 and Carsales.Com Ltd (AX: CAR ) was up 2.32% or 0.320 points to 14.090 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Myer Holdings Ltd (AX: MYR ), which lost 9.69% or 0.063 points to trade at 0.583 in late trade. Wisetech Global Ltd (AX: WTC ) declined 6.95% or 0.990 points to end at 13.250 and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (AX: TAH ) shed 5.25% or 0.250 points to 4.510.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 949 to 338 and 297 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 11.50% to 21.501.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.08% or 1.00 to $1320.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.05% or 0.64 to hit $60.51 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.71% or 0.46 to trade at $64.35 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.7778, while AUD/JPY rose 0.12% to 84.70.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 90.14.