Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 2.33% to hit a new 3-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sims Metal Management Ltd (ASX:SGM), which rose 10.64% or 1.130 points to trade at 11.750 at the close. Beadell Resources Ltd (ASX:BDR) added 10.53% or 0.030 points to end at 0.315 and Karoon Gas Australia Ltd (ASX:KAR) was up 10.13% or 0.230 points to 2.500 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which lost 5.67% or 0.250 points to trade at 4.160 in late trade. Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) declined 3.76% or 0.790 points to end at 20.230 and Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd (ASX:AGI) shed 2.88% or 0.080 points to 2.700.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 418 to 161 and 43 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 0.60% to 16.588.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.72% or 8.80 to $1229.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 1.01% or 0.52 to hit $51.73 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.93% or 0.55 to trade at $59.88 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.67% to 0.7788, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 92.29.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.33% at 93.98.