Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Consumer Staples and Healthcare sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.13%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Link Administration Holdings Ltd (ASX:LNK), which rose 9.66% or 0.60 points to trade at 6.81 at the close. Meanwhile, G.U.D. Holdings Ltd (ASX:GUD) added 7.23% or 0.81 points to end at 12.02 and Avita Medical (ASX:AVH) was up 5.47% or 0.035 points to 0.675 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV), which fell 5.08% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.800 at the close. Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:GOR) declined 5.02% or 0.075 points to end at 1.420 and Adelaide Brighton Ltd (ASX:ABC) was down 3.45% or 0.130 points to 3.640.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 621 to 546 and 363 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.52% to 13.767.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.66% or 10.50 to $1573.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 1.61% or 0.84 to hit $52.98 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 1.38% or 0.79 to trade at $58.12 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.6716, while AUD/JPY rose 0.04% to 73.23.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 97.775.