Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.04%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the Energy , Gold and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.04%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Resmed Inc DRC (AX: RMD ), which rose 10.14% or 1.500 points to trade at 16.300 at the close. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX: PLS ) added 9.09% or 0.060 points to end at 0.720 and Orocobre Ltd (AX: ORE ) was up 7.23% or 0.250 points to 3.710 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Janus Henderson Group PLC DRC (AX: JHG ), which lost 12.12% or 4.270 points to trade at 30.960 in late trade. Macquarie Group Ltd (AX: MQG ) declined 5.52% or 7.525 points to end at 128.675 and Regis Resources Ltd (AX: RRL ) shed 4.84% or 0.220 points to 4.330.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 590 to 572 and 381 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 2.25% to 11.824.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.06% or 0.75 to $1272.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.13% or 0.08 to hit $61.73 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.35% or 0.25 to trade at $70.50 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.11% to 0.6993, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 77.96.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 97.643.