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 0.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 14.88% or 0.160 points to trade at 1.235 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) added 11.16% or 0.260 points to end at 2.590 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) was up 8.98% or 0.265 points to 3.215 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ), which lost 4.03% or 0.038 points to trade at 0.892 in late trade. IPH Ltd (AX:IPH) declined 3.89% or 0.250 points to end at 6.170 and Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (AX:ALL) shed 3.04% or 0.420 points to 13.380.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 691 to 343 and 283 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 2.16% to 18.957.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 1.19% or 15.75 to $1336.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.62% or 0.30 to hit $48.63 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.68% or 0.34 to trade at $50.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.11% to 0.7459, while AUD/JPY fell 0.21% to 76.72.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.17% at 96.11.