Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Industrials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI), which rose 11.11% or 0.015 points to trade at 0.150 at the close. Village Roadshow Ltd (ASX:VRL) added 9.09% or 0.550 points to end at 6.600 and Sundance Energy Australia Ltd (ASX:SEA) was up 8.00% or 0.040 points to 0.540 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN), which lost 3.51% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.925 in late trade. South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) declined 3.45% or 0.070 points to end at 1.960 and Cabcharge Australia Ltd (ASX:CAB) shed 2.99% or 0.120 points to 3.900.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 608 to 464 and 189 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 3.92% to 16.518.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.21% or 2.50 to $1199.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.17% or 0.10 to hit $60.72 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.06% or 0.04 to trade at $64.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.45% to 0.7763, while AUD/JPY fell 0.33% to 95.57.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.17% at 94.37.