Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Utilities and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.99%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX), which rose 7.90% or 0.260 points to trade at 3.550 at the close. News Corp B (AX:NWS) added 6.65% or 1.090 points to end at 17.490 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL) was up 6.25% or 0.690 points to 11.730 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Newcrest Mining Ltd (AX:NCM), which lost 3.22% or 0.750 points to trade at 22.530 in late trade. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) declined 2.79% or 0.035 points to end at 1.220 and Henderson Group PLC (AX:HGG) shed 2.78% or 0.100 points to 3.500.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 673 to 428 and 317 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 2.17% to 11.685 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.94% or 11.65 to $1225.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.06% or 0.03 to hit $53.03 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $55.64 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.20% to 0.7639, while AUD/JPY rose 0.58% to 86.84.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 100.69.