Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Energy, Consumer Discretionary and Industrials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.59%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL), which rose 20.31% or 4.97 points to trade at 29.44 at the close. Meanwhile, A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX:A2M) added 5.16% or 0.32 points to end at 6.52 and Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:NIC) was up 5.00% or 0.050 points to 1.050 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were IPH Ltd (ASX:IPH), which fell 5.28% or 0.42 points to trade at 7.54 at the close. Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) declined 4.37% or 0.79 points to end at 17.30 and Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX:NWL) was down 2.99% or 0.50 points to 16.25.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 852 to 513 and 361 ended unchanged.
Shares in Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) rose to all time highs; gaining 20.31% or 4.97 to 29.44.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.60% to 11.426.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.07% or 1.20 to $1778.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.12% or 0.09 to hit $75.14 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.24% or 0.18 to trade at $75.66 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.17% to 0.7457, while AUD/JPY fell 0.10% to 83.22.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 92.672.