Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Friday, as losses in the S&P/ASX 200 Materials, S&P/ASX 300 Metals & Mining and S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 10.00% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.38 at the close. Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) added 9.85% or 0.27 points to end at 3.01 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was up 6.90% or 0.14 points to 2.17 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which fell 2.67% or 0.08 points to trade at 2.92 in late trade. Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) declined 2.21% or 0.02 points to end at 0.67 and Steadfast Group Ltd (ASX:SDF) down 1.98% or 0.11 points to 5.45.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones by 517 to 501 and 403 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
Shares in St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) rose to 52-week highs; up 10.00% or 0.04 to 0.38. Shares in Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) rose to 52-week highs; up 6.90% or 0.14 to 2.17.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.43% to 11.97.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 1.36% or 35.65 to $2,661.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 3.25% or 2.38 to hit $75.62 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 3.29% or 2.52 to trade at $79.10 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.02% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.09% to 100.22.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 102.68.