Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Energy, Utilities and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN), which rose 13.70% or 0.300 points to trade at 2.490 at the close. Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) added 10.34% or 0.150 points to end at 1.600 and Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM) was up 8.89% or 0.480 points to 5.880 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG), which lost 5.70% or 0.200 points to trade at 3.310 in late trade. OZ Minerals Ltd (AX:OZL) declined 5.02% or 0.450 points to end at 8.520 and Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) shed 4.58% or 0.033 points to 0.677.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 629 to 536 and 372 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 2.58% to 12.077 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.01% or 0.18 to $1291.82 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.86% or 0.41 to hit $47.84 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.86% or 0.45 to trade at $52.49 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7904, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 86.66.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 93.26.