Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Australian Real Estate Investment Trust, Gold and Information Technology sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.46%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO), which rose 37.88% or 0.063 points to trade at 0.228 at the close. Meanwhile, BC Iron Ltd (ASX:BCI) added 16.98% or 0.090 points to end at 0.620 and Mount Gibson Iron Ltd (ASX:MGX) was up 14.29% or 0.035 points to 0.280 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN), which fell 4.44% or 0.010 points to trade at 0.215 at the close. Sundance Energy Australia Ltd (ASX:SEA) declined 1.90% or 0.010 points to end at 0.515 and Sky Network Television Ltd. (ASX:SKT) was down 1.57% or 0.090 points to 5.650.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 327 to 179 and 38 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.93% to 14.300.
Gold for February delivery was up 0.14% or 1.70 to $1185.80 a troy ounce.
Elsewhere in commodities trading, crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.19% or 0.64 to hit $53.91 a barrel, while the February brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $57.59 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.53% to 0.8137, while AUD/JPY rose 0.00% to 97.98.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.36% at 90.97.