Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.82%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT), which rose 10.36% or 0.630 points to trade at 6.710 at the close. Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) added 10.00% or 0.070 points to end at 0.770 and Tassal Group Ltd (AX:TGR) was up 7.97% or 0.290 points to 3.930 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN), which lost 12.08% or 0.360 points to trade at 2.620 in late trade. Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM) declined 11.89% or 0.930 points to end at 6.890 and Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL) shed 9.49% or 0.113 points to 1.073.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 795 to 459 and 327 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 6.60% to 13.325.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.28% or 3.70 to $1329.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.08% or 0.05 to hit $62.72 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.14% or 0.09 to trade at $66.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.31% to 0.7821, while AUD/JPY fell 0.11% to 83.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.23% at 89.87.