SYDNEY — Australian shares closed lower Friday, with the S&P/ASX 200 falling 62.2 points, or 0.70%, to 8,778.5, as weakness in mining and energy stocks weighed on the benchmark index following a rough overnight session on Wall Street.

The decline extended a softer patch for the local market after Thursday's session, when the index gave back early gains to finish only marginally lower at 8,840.7 points. Friday's open had already been expected to be soft, with futures pricing in a roughly 26-point, or 0.3%, decline heading into the session after major U.S. indexes fell sharply overnight. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.3%, the S&P 500 fell 0.6%, and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.5% as chip stocks led losses on Wall Street, souring sentiment heading into the Australian trading day.

Gold miners were among the hardest hit sectors on the local bourse. Overnight, gold futures fell 1.8% to $3,979 an ounce, driven by growing expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve could deliver a further interest rate increase, which tends to reduce demand for the precious metal by raising the opportunity cost of holding non-yielding assets. That pullback in gold prices weighed heavily on ASX-listed gold miners, including Evolution Mining and Newmont Corporation, both of which were tipped for a difficult finish to the trading week.

Energy stocks similarly struggled after oil prices retreated overnight. According to Bloomberg data, West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.7%........

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