Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.89% to hit a new 5-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which rose 7.64% or 0.365 points to trade at 5.145 at the close. Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (AX:NEC) added 4.49% or 0.11 points to end at 2.56 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was up 4.00% or 0.120 points to 3.120 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Inghams Group Ltd (AX:ING), which lost 3.16% or 0.12 points to trade at 3.83 in late trade. Appen Ltd (AX:APX) declined 2.60% or 0.340 points to end at 12.720 and Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG) shed 2.12% or 0.055 points to 2.545.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 638 to 471 and 376 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 5.26% to 12.541.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.19% or 2.40 to $1256.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.34% or 0.25 to hit $73.19 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.10% or 0.08 to trade at $77.47 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.27% to 0.7408, while AUD/JPY rose 0.38% to 82.04.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 94.09.