Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Consumer Staples and Financials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.14%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC), which rose 9.85% or 0.160 points to trade at 1.785 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 6.18% or 0.215 points to end at 3.695 and Washington H Soul Pattinson&Co Ltd (AX:SOL) was up 3.77% or 1.020 points to 28.050 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (AX:APX), which fell 3.71% or 0.520 points to trade at 13.500 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) declined 3.65% or 0.080 points to end at 2.110 and Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) was down 3.26% or 0.043 points to 1.262.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 602 to 553 and 389 ended unchanged.
Shares in Washington H Soul Pattinson&Co Ltd (AX:SOL) rose to all time highs; gaining 3.77% or 1.020 to 28.050.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.32% to 11.394.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.04% or 0.50 to $1202.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.75% or 0.56 to hit $74.89 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.57% or 0.48 to trade at $85.06 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.14% to 0.7065, while AUD/JPY fell 0.20% to 80.45.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 95.52.