Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Healthcare and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Eclipx Group Ltd (ASX:ECX), which rose 29.48% or 0.255 points to trade at 1.120 at the close. Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX:LYC) added 11.31% or 0.310 points to end at 3.050 and Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) was up 5.45% or 0.200 points to 3.870 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Link Administration Holdings Ltd (ASX:LNK), which lost 23.07% or 1.790 points to trade at 5.970 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 6.64% or 1.850 points to end at 26.030 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) shed 5.88% or 0.160 points to 2.560.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 617 to 562 and 390 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 0.52% to 14.914 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.43% or 5.50 to $1292.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 1.27% or 0.72 to hit $55.87 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.36% or 0.89 to trade at $64.44 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.6913, while AUD/JPY fell 0.57% to 75.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 98.018.