Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.67%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which rose 6.07% or 0.115 points to trade at 2.010 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) added 6.02% or 0.040 points to end at 0.705 and Flight Centre Ltd (AX:FLT) was up 5.89% or 2.050 points to 36.850 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sai Global Ltd (AX:SAI), which lost 6.03% or 0.225 points to trade at 3.505 in late trade. APN News & Media Ltd (AX:APN) declined 3.57% or 0.025 points to end at 0.675 and Japara Fpo (AX:JHC) shed 3.11% or 0.090 points to 2.800.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 615 to 379 and 346 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 5.24% to 17.045.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.05% or 0.65 to $1255.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.78% or 0.38 to hit $49.15 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.74% or 0.36 to trade at $49.17 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.14% to 0.7238, while AUD/JPY rose 0.31% to 79.72.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 95.28.