Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Resources, Metals & Mining and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.74%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG), which rose 6.96% or 0.040 points to trade at 0.615 at the close. G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) added 4.44% or 0.175 points to end at 4.115 and Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (AX:AAC) was up 4.03% or 0.073 points to 1.873 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ozforex Grp (AX:OFX), which lost 5.51% or 0.125 points to trade at 2.145 in late trade. Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV) declined 3.64% or 0.270 points to end at 7.140 and Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) shed 3.54% or 0.225 points to 6.125.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 556 to 436 and 354 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 4.97% to 17.171.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.08% or 0.95 to $1213.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.06% or 0.03 to hit $49.20 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $50.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.25% to 0.7247, while AUD/JPY rose 0.05% to 78.75.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.03% at 95.53.