Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Financials and Materials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.25%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were James Hardie Industries PLC (ASX:JHX), which rose 14.05% or 2.670 points to trade at 21.680 at the close. Meanwhile, AMP Ltd (ASX:AMP) added 11.56% or 0.200 points to end at 1.930 and Orocobre Ltd (ASX:ORE) was up 10.26% or 0.280 points to 3.010 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR), which fell 3.24% or 0.110 points to trade at 3.290 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) declined 3.16% or 0.065 points to end at 1.995 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX:SAR) was down 2.56% or 0.120 points to 4.570.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 731 to 456 and 378 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.22% to 16.528.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.25% or 3.75 to $1513.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.30% or 0.16 to hit $52.70 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.31% or 0.18 to trade at $57.56 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.6813, while AUD/JPY rose 0.07% to 72.17.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 97.412.