Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Star Entertainment Group Ltd (AX:SGR), which rose 5.29% or 0.230 points to trade at 4.580 at the close. Goodman Group (AX:GMG) added 4.18% or 0.440 points to end at 10.960 and Coles Group Ltd (AX:COL) was up 4.13% or 0.50 points to 12.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ioof Holdings Ltd (AX:IFL), which lost 35.84% or 2.570 points to trade at 4.600 in late trade. Adelaide Brighton Ltd (AX:ABC) declined 9.34% or 0.480 points to end at 4.660 and Perpetual Ltd (AX:PPT) shed 5.64% or 2.000 points to 33.490.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 580 to 486 and 355 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 2.36% to 16.732.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.10% or 1.20 to $1244.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.78% or 0.40 to hit $51.09 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.80% or 0.48 to trade at $59.58 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.08% to 0.7228, while AUD/JPY rose 0.11% to 81.61.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 96.838.