Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Consumer Staples and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC), which rose 9.85% or 0.160 points to trade at 1.785 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 6.18% or 0.215 points to end at 3.695 and Washington H Soul Pattinson&Co Ltd (AX:SOL) was up 3.77% or 1.020 points to 28.050 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Appen Ltd (AX:APX), which lost 3.71% or 0.520 points to trade at 13.500 in late trade. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) declined 3.65% or 0.080 points to end at 2.110 and Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) shed 3.26% or 0.043 points to 1.262.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 600 to 552 and 393 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 up 1.32% to 11.394.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.04% or 0.50 to $1202.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.75% or 0.56 to hit $74.89 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.56% or 0.47 to trade at $85.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.14% to 0.7065, while AUD/JPY fell 0.20% to 80.45.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 95.53.