Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M), which rose 9.55% or 0.320 points to trade at 3.670 at the close. Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN) added 5.51% or 0.140 points to end at 2.680 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was up 4.35% or 0.068 points to 1.617 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN), which lost 5.07% or 0.545 points to trade at 10.205 in late trade. Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX) declined 4.77% or 0.205 points to end at 4.095 and Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) shed 4.58% or 0.070 points to 1.460.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 599 to 543 and 375 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 1.10% to 12.462.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.08% or 1.01 to $1255.61 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.04% or 0.02 to hit $44.48 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.13% or 0.06 to trade at $46.98 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7591, while AUD/JPY rose 0.34% to 84.38.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.53.