Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, IT and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.20%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Corp Trav F (AX:CTD), which rose 6.87% or 0.980 points to trade at 15.250 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) added 6.00% or 0.120 points to end at 2.120 and Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) was up 5.67% or 0.510 points to 9.500 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:SKT), which lost 15.38% or 0.780 points to trade at 4.290 in late trade. BT Investment Management Ltd (AX:BTT) declined 8.09% or 0.820 points to end at 9.320 and Medibank Private Ltd (AX:MPL) shed 5.49% or 0.180 points to 3.100.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 542 to 448 and 331 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 0.51% to 18.269.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.48% or 6.05 to $1278.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 1.08% or 0.48 to hit $43.84 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.93% or 0.42 to trade at $44.59 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.94% to 0.7396, while AUD/JPY fell 0.96% to 79.29.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 93.79.