Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST), which rose 8.83% or 0.310 points to trade at 3.820 at the close. Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX:CGC) added 8.70% or 0.240 points to end at 3.000 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) was up 6.81% or 0.110 points to 1.725 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG), which lost 7.03% or 0.045 points to trade at 0.595 in late trade. Sirtex Medical Ltd (AX:SRX) declined 5.98% or 1.810 points to end at 28.480 and Orora Fpo (AX:ORA) shed 4.26% or 0.110 points to 2.470.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 512 to 431 and 283 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 4.60% to 14.619 a new 6-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.02% or 0.20 to $1264.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.05% or 0.02 to hit $40.22 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.02 to trade at $41.52 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.09% to 0.7641, while AUD/JPY fell 0.32% to 84.92.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.13% at 94.89.