Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Energy, Materials and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 22.10% or 0.20 points to trade at 1.11 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) added 13.47% or 0.26 points to end at 2.19 and James Hardie Industries PLC (ASX:JHX) was up 6.09% or 2.98 points to 51.94 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX:DHG), which lost 3.07% or 0.10 points to trade at 3.00 in late trade. Amcor PLC (ASX:AMC) declined 3.04% or 0.49 points to end at 15.65 and Cochlear Ltd (ASX:COH) shed 1.99% or 6.23 points to 306.77.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 718 to 399 and 425 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 1.08% to 12.14.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.10% or 2.60 to $2,495.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.42% or 0.33 to hit $77.83 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.24 to trade at $80.80 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.31% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.10% to 98.79.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 102.75.