Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS), which rose 12.06% or 0.155 points to trade at 1.440 at the close. Flexigroup Ltd (ASX:FXL) added 5.17% or 0.180 points to end at 3.660 and Qube Holdings Ltd (ASX:QUB) was up 4.68% or 0.130 points to 2.910 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sundance Energy Australia Ltd (ASX:SEA), which lost 6.67% or 0.045 points to trade at 0.630 in late trade. Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) declined 5.93% or 0.035 points to end at 0.555 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) shed 5.00% or 0.020 points to 0.380.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 548 to 465 and 193 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 1.89% to 16.421.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.38% or 4.60 to $1220.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.16% or 0.10 to hit $59.78 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.01% or 0.01 to trade at $66.69 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.34% to 0.8054, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 96.18.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 93.40.