Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Energy, Gold and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT), which rose 9.76% or 0.560 points to trade at 6.300 at the close. James Hardie Industries PLC (AX:JHX) added 6.77% or 1.500 points to end at 23.650 and Santos Ltd (AX:STO) was up 5.49% or 0.280 points to 5.380 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Asaleo Care (AX:AHY), which lost 6.17% or 0.100 points to trade at 1.520 in late trade. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) declined 5.60% or 0.190 points to end at 3.200 and Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR) shed 4.34% or 0.170 points to 3.750.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 641 to 609 and 350 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 3.52% to 12.049.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.19% or 2.60 to $1350.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.47% or 0.31 to hit $66.11 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.27% or 0.19 to trade at $69.84 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.45% to 0.8004, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 87.77.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 88.59.