Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Energy and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 3.70% or 0.11 points to trade at 3.08 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 4.26% or 0.01 points to end at 0.25 and Ampol Ltd (ASX:ALD) was up 2.35% or 0.67 points to 29.21 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which lost 5.37% or 0.18 points to trade at 3.17 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 1.77% or 0.05 points to end at 2.77 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) shed 2.13% or 0.40 points to 18.41.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 630 to 424 and 427 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 2.86% to 10.79.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.23% or 6.16 to $2,675.16 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.25% or 0.18 to hit $73.31 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.15 to trade at $76.08 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.26% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY rose 0.12% to 97.83.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 108.98.