Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Telecoms Services and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Boral Ltd. (AX:BLD), which rose 3.82% or 0.250 points to trade at 6.790 at the close. Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (AX:TWE) added 3.73% or 0.670 points to end at 18.640 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS) was up 3.81% or 0.038 points to 1.022 in late trade.
Biggest losers included CSR Ltd (AX:CSR), which lost 8.18% or 0.360 points to trade at 4.040 in late trade. Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC) declined 5.84% or 0.125 points to end at 2.015 and Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) shed 4.53% or 0.130 points to 2.740.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 711 to 503 and 381 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 2.19% to 12.005.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.07% or 0.80 to $1223.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.18% or 0.12 to hit $68.36 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.37% or 0.27 to trade at $72.85 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.33% to 0.7380, while AUD/JPY rose 0.22% to 82.90.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 94.79.