Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, Metals & Mining and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd (AX:CWY), which rose 15.00% or 0.135 points to trade at 1.035 at the close. Ardent Leisure Group (AX:AAD) added 10.87% or 0.250 points to end at 2.550 and Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) was up 6.76% or 0.200 points to 3.160 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which lost 11.32% or 0.240 points to trade at 1.880 in late trade. Medibank Private Ltd (AX:MPL) declined 5.70% or 0.170 points to end at 2.810 and IPH Ltd (AX:IPH) shed 4.92% or 0.300 points to 5.800.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 648 to 432 and 312 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 1.53% to 11.729 a new 52-week low.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.36% or 4.85 to $1352.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.68% or 0.33 to hit $48.55 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.26% or 0.13 to trade at $51.02 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.57% to 0.7642, while AUD/JPY fell 0.22% to 76.61.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.21% at 94.31.