Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Energy, Resources and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 10.03% or 0.145 points to trade at 1.590 at the close. Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) added 5.37% or 0.040 points to end at 0.785 and OZ Minerals Ltd (AX:OZL) was up 5.27% or 0.350 points to 6.990 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Suncorp Group Ltd (AX:SUN), which lost 4.09% or 0.560 points to trade at 13.140 in late trade. BWP Trust (AX:BWP) declined 3.67% or 0.135 points to end at 3.545 and Scentre (AX:SCG) shed 2.63% or 0.135 points to 4.995.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 667 to 424 and 324 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 2.65% to 12.609 a new 52-week low.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.34% or 4.65 to $1345.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 1.03% or 0.45 to hit $43.94 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.74% or 0.34 to trade at $46.38 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.7690, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 78.50.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 95.86.