Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.39%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Discretionary and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.39%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH), which rose 4.12% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.51 at the close. Unibail Rodamco Westfield (ASX:URW) added 3.18% or 0.19 points to end at 6.16 and Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) was up 2.56% or 0.39 points to 15.62 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which lost 7.14% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.04 in late trade. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) declined 6.20% or 0.16 points to end at 2.42 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) shed 5.73% or 0.07 points to 1.07.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 571 to 510 and 429 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 up 0.87% to 12.73.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.27% or 6.90 to $2,550.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.39% or 0.27 to hit $69.42 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.37% or 0.27 to trade at $72.96 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.19% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.98% to 95.75.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 100.87.