Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Utilities and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were M2 Telecommunications Group Ltd (ASX:MTU), which rose 8.17% or 0.680 points to trade at 9.000 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 7.74% or 0.240 points to end at 3.340 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) was up 7.41% or 0.010 points to 0.145 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Cardno Ltd (ASX:CDD), which lost 6.12% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.300 in late trade. AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) declined 5.81% or 0.045 points to end at 0.730 and UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL) shed 5.68% or 0.110 points to 1.825.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 492 to 467 and 145 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 1.86% to 28.939.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.02% or 0.20 to $1124.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 1.28% or 0.60 to hit $46.15 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 1.37% or 0.69 to trade at $49.98 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.50% to 0.6983, while AUD/JPY fell 0.93% to 83.48.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.01% at 96.33.