Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.50%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.50%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH), which rose 8.23% or 0.07 points to trade at 0.86 at the close. Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) added 4.44% or 0.26 points to end at 6.12 and Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) was up 3.65% or 1.44 points to 40.84 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which lost 5.14% or 0.17 points to trade at 3.14 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 4.73% or 0.10 points to end at 1.92 and Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) shed 4.53% or 0.08 points to 1.58.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 648 to 397 and 376 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 0.74% to 13.84.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.45% or 12.45 to $2,761.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 2.01% or 1.39 to hit $70.65 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 1.87% or 1.36 to trade at $74.17 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 100.23.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 103.93.