Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Financials and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which rose 5.08% or 0.200 points to trade at 4.140 at the close. NIB Holdings (AX:NHF) added 5.10% or 0.290 points to end at 5.980 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) was up 3.62% or 0.025 points to 0.715 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which lost 3.42% or 0.095 points to trade at 2.685 in late trade. Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) declined 3.09% or 0.080 points to end at 2.510 and ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ) shed 2.86% or 0.230 points to 7.800.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 614 to 509 and 404 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 4.89% to 13.038.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.52% or 6.70 to $1301.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.24% or 0.12 to hit $50.67 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.04% or 0.02 to trade at $56.45 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7939, while AUD/JPY fell 0.40% to 88.87.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 91.73.