Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Gold and Metals & Mining sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.32%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:NIC), which rose 13.29% or 0.12 points to trade at 0.98 at the close. Meanwhile, Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) added 4.47% or 0.27 points to end at 6.31 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was up 3.47% or 0.05 points to 1.49 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which fell 6.88% or 0.24 points to trade at 3.25 at the close. EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) declined 6.25% or 0.05 points to end at 0.68 and Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) was down 3.38% or 0.11 points to 3.14.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 648 to 629 and 436 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.94% to 11.63.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.03% or 0.55 to $1,979.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.25% or 0.18 to hit $71.11 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.24% or 0.18 to trade at $75.78 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.01% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.36% to 93.63.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 103.43.