Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.21%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.21% to hit a new all time high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH), which rose 8.14% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.47 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 5.26% or 0.02 points to end at 0.30 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) was up 5.13% or 0.05 points to 1.02 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Inghams Group Ltd (ASX:ING), which lost 3.93% or 0.12 points to trade at 2.93 in late trade. EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) declined 3.73% or 0.03 points to end at 0.65 and IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) shed 3.65% or 0.19 points to 5.01.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 551 to 543 and 451 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 0.80% to 11.68.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.38% or 9.90 to $2,624.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.07% or 0.05 to hit $71.11 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.11% or 0.08 to trade at $74.80 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.17% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.37% to 96.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 100.17.