Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Financials and Telecoms Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.47%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which rose 5.08% or 0.200 points to trade at 4.140 at the close. Meanwhile, NIB Holdings (AX:NHF) added 5.10% or 0.290 points to end at 5.980 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) was up 3.62% or 0.025 points to 0.715 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which fell 3.42% or 0.095 points to trade at 2.685 at the close. Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) declined 3.09% or 0.080 points to end at 2.510 and ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ) was down 2.93% or 0.235 points to 7.795.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 614 to 509 and 404 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.81% to 13.050.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.54% or 7.03 to $1301.83 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.24% or 0.12 to hit $50.67 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.04% or 0.02 to trade at $56.45 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7939, while AUD/JPY fell 0.41% to 88.86.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 91.73.