Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.48%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.48%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Independence Group NL (AX: IGO ), which rose 8.42% or 0.330 points to trade at 4.250 at the close. Regis Resources Ltd (AX: RRL ) added 5.65% or 0.200 points to end at 3.740 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX: SAR ) was up 5.21% or 0.080 points to 1.615 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Asaleo Care (AX: AHY ), which lost 29.91% or 0.640 points to trade at 1.500 in late trade. GWA Group Ltd (AX: GWA ) declined 5.40% or 0.115 points to end at 2.015 and Metcash Ltd (AX: MTS ) shed 4.25% or 0.090 points to 2.030.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 592 to 509 and 295 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 5.69% to 15.353.

In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.39% or 5.15 to $1325.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.36% or 0.16 to hit $44.59 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.08 to trade at $46.12 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.23% to 0.7476, while AUD/JPY fell 0.29% to 79.12.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.04% at 96.98.