Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Greencross Ltd (AX:GXL), which rose 11.34% or 0.660 points to trade at 6.480 at the close. Corp Trav F (AX:CTD) added 8.91% or 1.000 points to end at 12.220 and Bega Cheese Ltd (AX:BGA) was up 7.72% or 0.440 points to 6.140 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG), which lost 8.67% or 0.065 points to trade at 0.685 in late trade. OZ Minerals Ltd (AX:OZL) declined 7.89% or 0.330 points to end at 3.850 and AWE Ltd (AX:AWE) shed 6.80% or 0.035 points to 0.480.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 506 to 475 and 150 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 up 3.65% to 18.245.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.64% or 6.70 to $1056.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.34% or 0.12 to hit $34.83 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.68% or 0.25 to trade at $37.14 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.22% to 0.7141, while AUD/JPY fell 0.41% to 87.00.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.42% at 98.78.