Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Consumer Discretionary and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.39%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR), which rose 13.94% or 0.145 points to trade at 1.185 at the close. Isentia Group Ltd (AX:ISD) added 11.76% or 0.280 points to end at 2.660 and Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) was up 6.28% or 0.510 points to 8.630 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which lost 8.93% or 0.250 points to trade at 2.550 in late trade. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) declined 6.93% or 0.280 points to end at 3.760 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) shed 5.69% or 0.060 points to 0.995.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 544 to 484 and 321 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 2.57% to 13.098.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.72% or 8.75 to $1208.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.68% or 0.31 to hit $45.11 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.47% or 0.22 to trade at $46.27 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.16% to 0.7395, while AUD/JPY rose 0.29% to 81.81.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.25% at 101.25.