Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Gold and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were IPH Ltd (AX:IPH), which rose 6.52% or 0.300 points to trade at 4.900 at the close. Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) added 5.09% or 0.055 points to end at 1.135 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was up 4.55% or 0.023 points to 0.517 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL), which lost 3.00% or 0.040 points to trade at 1.295 in late trade. Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG) declined 2.84% or 0.160 points to end at 5.480 and Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) shed 2.80% or 0.020 points to 0.695.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 592 to 500 and 313 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 7.99% to 9.745.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.09% or 1.10 to $1226.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.25% or 0.12 to hit $48.87 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.07 to trade at $51.81 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7684, while AUD/JPY rose 0.21% to 87.16.
The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 100.09.