Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Utilities 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 St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 7.69% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.21 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) added 5.83% or 0.03 points to end at 0.55 and Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SKC) was up 5.47% or 0.07 points to 1.35 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which lost 6.92% or 4.15 points to trade at 55.81 in late trade. IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) declined 5.29% or 0.31 points to end at 5.55 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) shed 4.69% or 0.05 points to 1.01.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 594 to 566 and 501 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 0.89% to 10.40.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.25% or 5.90 to $2,374.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.04% or 0.03 to hit $81.32 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.01% or 0.01 to trade at $85.72 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.11% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.13% to 105.92.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 105.21.