Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, Consumer Discretionary and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 7.61% or 0.175 points to trade at 2.475 at the close. Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR) added 6.39% or 0.195 points to end at 3.245 and Japara Fpo (AX:JHC) was up 6.03% or 0.105 points to 1.845 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which lost 4.23% or 0.053 points to trade at 1.188 in late trade. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) declined 4.21% or 0.063 points to end at 1.423 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL) shed 3.21% or 0.250 points to 7.550.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 706 to 356 and 329 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 6.12% to 15.168.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.00% or 0.05 to $1317.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.64% or 0.28 to hit $43.63 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.62% or 0.29 to trade at $46.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.7510, while AUD/JPY fell 0.10% to 76.66.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.03% at 95.31.