Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.71%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.71%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pact Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: PGH ), which rose 9.84% or 0.250 points to trade at 2.790 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (ASX: BAL ) added 4.53% or 0.360 points to end at 8.310 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX: RSG ) was up 3.89% or 0.050 points to 1.335 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT ), which lost 9.92% or 2.760 points to trade at 25.070 in late trade. Bravura Solutions Ltd (ASX: BVS ) declined 4.52% or 0.230 points to end at 4.860 and Growthpoint Properties Australia (ASX: GOZ ) shed 3.29% or 0.140 points to 4.120.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 706 to 621 and 386 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 3.97% to 13.043.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.10% or 1.35 to $1413.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.52% or 0.31 to hit $59.12 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.55% or 0.36 to trade at $65.31 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7014, while AUD/JPY rose 0.05% to 75.56.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 95.727.