Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, Telecoms Services and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.58%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA), which rose 16.90% or 0.180 points to trade at 1.245 at the close. Meanwhile, Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) added 6.21% or 0.930 points to end at 15.910 and Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (ASX:MYX) was up 4.17% or 0.020 points to 0.500 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Bingo Industries Ltd (ASX:BIN), which fell 3.51% or 0.080 points to trade at 2.200 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) declined 2.98% or 0.090 points to end at 2.930 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX:SAR) was down 2.81% or 0.100 points to 3.460.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 662 to 486 and 368 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.47% to 12.772.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.60% or 9.15 to $1506.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.44% or 0.25 to hit $56.16 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.83% or 0.52 to trade at $62.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.6761, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 72.89.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 98.877.