Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.54%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.54%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nine Ent Fpo (AX: NEC ), which rose 9.28% or 0.090 points to trade at 1.060 at the close. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ) added 9.17% or 0.028 points to end at 0.328 and Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX: SKT ) was up 3.77% or 0.170 points to 4.680 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX: SXL ), which lost 13.35% or 0.225 points to trade at 1.460 in late trade. Western Areas Ltd (AX: WSA ) declined 6.01% or 0.185 points to end at 2.895 and Estia Health Ltd (AX: EHE ) shed 4.32% or 0.150 points to 3.320.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 588 to 446 and 332 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 4.92% to 14.296.

In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.07% or 0.95 to $1326.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.71% or 0.34 to hit $47.49 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.94% or 0.47 to trade at $49.34 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.05% to 0.7631, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 77.15.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.04% at 95.47.