Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Consumer Discretionary and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.28%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ), which rose 5.67% or 0.040 points to trade at 0.745 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) added 5.29% or 0.055 points to end at 1.095 and Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (AX:DHG) was up 4.44% or 0.150 points to 3.530 in late trade.
Biggest losers included APA Group (AX:APA), which lost 5.44% or 0.510 points to trade at 8.860 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) declined 4.22% or 0.250 points to end at 5.670 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) shed 4.13% or 0.140 points to 3.250.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 668 to 544 and 344 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 5.95% to 10.562.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.19% or 2.40 to $1250.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.04% or 0.02 to hit $56.67 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $62.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.7512, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 85.17.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 93.83.