Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Industrials and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Ltd (AX:GMA), which rose 8.09% or 0.190 points to trade at 2.540 at the close. Vocus Group Ltd (AX:VOC) added 4.83% or 0.115 points to end at 2.495 and Webjet Ltd (AX:WEB) was up 4.27% or 0.510 points to 12.460 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU), which lost 6.69% or 0.760 points to trade at 10.600 in late trade. Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) declined 6.35% or 0.080 points to end at 1.180 and Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) shed 5.33% or 0.170 points to 3.020.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 713 to 495 and 342 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 9.75% to 13.063.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.25% or 3.30 to $1318.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.23% or 0.14 to hit $60.26 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.30% or 0.19 to trade at $63.80 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.7792, while AUD/JPY rose 0.45% to 83.09.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 90.14.