Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.30%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Metals&Mining and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.30%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:PRU), which rose 10.21% or 0.24 points to trade at 2.59 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) added 7.18% or 0.29 points to end at 4.33 and Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) was up 6.96% or 0.13 points to 1.92 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which lost 7.67% or 0.08 points to trade at 0.93 in late trade. Seek Ltd (ASX:SEK) declined 2.96% or 0.68 points to end at 22.26 and Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) shed 2.44% or 0.19 points to 7.59.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 634 to 438 and 454 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 1.54% to 12.42.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.58% or 14.90 to $2,595.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.57% or 0.39 to hit $69.36 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.54% or 0.39 to trade at $72.36 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.04% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.83% to 94.74.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 101.12.