Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 10.16% or 0.125 points to trade at 1.355 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) added 6.08% or 0.630 points to end at 11.000 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) was up 5.02% or 0.083 points to 1.728 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL), which lost 2.51% or 0.100 points to trade at 3.880 in late trade. Primary Health Care Ltd (AX:PRY) declined 2.30% or 0.090 points to end at 3.820 and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (AX:TAH) shed 2.05% or 0.090 points to 4.300.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 556 to 489 and 330 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 2.67% to 18.034.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.22% or 3.00 to $1359.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.75% or 0.34 to hit $45.48 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.88% or 0.41 to trade at $46.81 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.07% to 0.7489, while AUD/JPY fell 0.28% to 75.20.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.22% at 96.12.