Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Consumer Discretionary and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.49%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 7.45% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.25 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) added 7.34% or 0.04 points to end at 0.58 and Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) was up 6.27% or 0.91 points to 15.42 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL), which lost 6.35% or 0.19 points to trade at 2.80 in late trade. Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA) declined 3.20% or 0.07 points to end at 2.12 and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) shed 2.91% or 0.05 points to 1.58.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 582 to 556 and 495 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 2.34% to 10.63 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.15% or 3.50 to $2,394.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.08% or 0.06 to hit $75.61 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $79.89 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.17% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.15% to 103.58.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 104.03.