Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.74%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.74%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 10.00% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.33 at the close. Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX:NEC) added 4.82% or 0.06 points to end at 1.20 and Insignia Financial Ltd (ASX:IFL) was up 4.78% or 0.15 points to 3.29 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS), which lost 16.04% or 0.26 points to trade at 1.34 in late trade. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) declined 11.80% or 0.21 points to end at 1.57 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) shed 5.38% or 0.35 points to 6.15.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 568 to 519 and 460 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 0.81% to 10.62.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.13% or 3.40 to $2,569.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.96% or 0.66 to hit $68.04 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.96% or 0.70 to trade at $71.86 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.20% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY rose 0.22% to 101.10.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 106.72.