Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Staples and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.37%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which rose 5.86% or 0.950 points to trade at 17.160 at the close. Magellan Financial Group Ltd (AX:MFG) added 5.14% or 1.150 points to end at 23.540 and Sirtex Medical Ltd (AX:SRX) was up 5.06% or 1.500 points to 31.140 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which lost 4.35% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.550 in late trade. Aveo Group (AX:AOG) declined 2.69% or 0.065 points to end at 2.355 and G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) shed 2.48% or 0.060 points to 2.360.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 758 to 482 and 412 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 0.25% to 11.494.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.39% or 5.10 to $1303.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.04% or 0.03 to hit $66.86 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $75.88 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.17% to 0.7465, while AUD/JPY rose 0.07% to 82.78.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 95.03.