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 Utilities , Real Estate Investment and Financials 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 Seven West Media Ltd (AX: SWM ), which rose 7.20% or 0.048 points to trade at 0.708 at the close. Sirtex Medical Ltd (AX: SRX ) added 5.67% or 1.580 points to end at 29.430 and Wisetech Global Ltd (AX: WTC ) was up 5.99% or 0.690 points to 12.200 in late trade.
Biggest losers included APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX: APO ), which lost 5.32% or 0.295 points to trade at 5.245 in late trade. Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX: MYX ) declined 3.23% or 0.025 points to end at 0.750 and Mineral Resources Ltd (AX: MIN ) shed 3.27% or 0.665 points to 19.675.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 654 to 596 and 359 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 3.51% to 11.610.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.02% or 0.30 to $1312.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $68.44 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $73.64 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7538, while AUD/JPY rose 0.01% to 82.25.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 92.32.

Drop an image here or Supported formats: *.jpg, *.png, *.gif up to 5mb
Drop an image here or