Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Financials and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.77%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Perpetual Ltd (AX:PPT), which rose 5.78% or 2.350 points to trade at 43.010 at the close. CYBG PLC (AX:CYB) added 5.43% or 0.200 points to end at 3.880 and Appen Ltd (AX:APX) was up 4.15% or 0.970 points to 24.370 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which lost 4.17% or 0.050 points to trade at 1.150 in late trade. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) declined 3.85% or 0.110 points to end at 2.750 and Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) shed 2.97% or 0.300 points to 9.800.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 618 to 489 and 362 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 4.81% to 10.782 a new 6-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.27% or 3.45 to $1296.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.41% or 0.26 to hit $63.84 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.40% or 0.28 to trade at $71.11 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.12% to 0.7131, while AUD/JPY rose 0.25% to 79.72.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 96.643.