Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.58%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Industrials and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.58%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Downer Edi Ltd (ASX:DOW), which rose 16.95% or 0.81 points to trade at 5.59 at the close. TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX:TPG) added 8.08% or 0.37 points to end at 4.95 and Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU) was up 7.98% or 0.21 points to 2.84 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which lost 16.87% or 0.21 points to trade at 1.01 in late trade. Ramsay Health Care Ltd (ASX:RHC) declined 7.33% or 3.27 points to end at 41.30 and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) shed 6.34% or 0.31 points to 4.58.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 730 to 412 and 444 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 3.38% to 10.94 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.18% or 4.60 to $2,555.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.41% or 0.31 to hit $76.22 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.43% or 0.34 to trade at $79.16 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.10% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 98.67.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 101.31.