Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.40%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.40% to hit a new 1-month low.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ), which rose 9.13% or 0.220 points to trade at 2.630 at the close. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX: PLS ) added 8.16% or 0.058 points to end at 0.762 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX: SIG ) was up 6.07% or 0.033 points to 0.568 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX: APT ), which lost 6.06% or 0.970 points to trade at 15.030 in late trade. Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX: SXL ) declined 3.69% or 0.050 points to end at 1.305 and Nextdc Ltd (AX: NXT ) shed 3.69% or 0.230 points to 6.000.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 705 to 494 and 363 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 4.00% to 14.070.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.13% or 1.60 to $1205.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.13% or 0.09 to hit $67.86 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $76.48 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.64% to 0.7152, while AUD/JPY fell 0.79% to 79.09.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 94.98.