Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Consumer Staples and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX:CGC), which rose 6.41% or 0.335 points to trade at 5.565 at the close. Magellan Financial Group Ltd (AX:MFG) added 6.03% or 1.400 points to end at 24.600 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 4.71% or 0.200 points to 4.450 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sirtex Medical Ltd (AX:SRX), which lost 3.38% or 0.470 points to trade at 13.430 in late trade. Orica Ltd (AX:ORI) declined 3.09% or 0.630 points to end at 19.750 and Primary Health Care Ltd (AX:PRY) shed 2.22% or 0.070 points to 3.090.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 658 to 479 and 382 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 5.94% to 11.179 a new 6-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.10% or 1.33 to $1287.37 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.17% or 0.09 to hit $51.47 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.07% or 0.04 to trade at $57.12 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.22% to 0.7839, while AUD/JPY rose 0.10% to 88.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 93.10.