Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Financials and Resources sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.12%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN), which rose 6.92% or 0.076 points to trade at 1.175 at the close. Meanwhile, Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN) added 6.67% or 0.015 points to end at 0.240 and Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG) was up 5.06% or 0.020 points to 0.415 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM), which fell 6.15% or 0.040 points to trade at 0.610 at the close. UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL) declined 5.69% or 0.140 points to end at 2.320 and Kathmandu Holdings Ltd (ASX:KMD) was down 4.07% or 0.055 points to 1.295.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 603 to 445 and 193 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.08% to 15.308.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.03% or 0.30 to $1188.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.77% or 0.45 to hit $58.12 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.59% or 0.37 to trade at $62.95 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.06% to 0.7652, while AUD/JPY rose 0.03% to 94.84.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.11% at 97.24.