Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Utilities and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.72%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN), which rose 4.97% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.590 at the close. Spark Infrastructure Group (AX:SKI) added 3.21% or 0.070 points to end at 2.250 and Atlas Arteria (AX:ALX) was up 2.81% or 0.190 points to 6.950 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA), which lost 3.96% or 0.165 points to trade at 4.005 in late trade. Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL) declined 3.25% or 4.45 points to end at 132.53 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) shed 2.27% or 0.240 points to 10.310.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 688 to 443 and 369 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 5.48% to 10.654 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.03% or 0.40 to $1187.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.26% or 0.19 to hit $72.31 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.18% or 0.15 to trade at $81.53 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.7222, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 81.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 94.56.