Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Financials and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.75%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Perpetual Ltd (AX:PPT), which rose 5.76% or 2.340 points to trade at 43.000 at the close. Meanwhile, CYBG PLC (AX:CYB) added 5.43% or 0.200 points to end at 3.880 and Appen Ltd (AX:APX) was up 4.23% or 0.990 points to 24.390 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which fell 4.17% or 0.050 points to trade at 1.150 at the close. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) declined 3.85% or 0.110 points to end at 2.750 and Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) was down 3.17% or 0.320 points to 9.780.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 618 to 490 and 360 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.81% to 10.782 a new 6-months low.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.26% or 3.35 to $1296.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.41% or 0.26 to hit $63.84 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.37% or 0.26 to trade at $71.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.12% to 0.7131, while AUD/JPY rose 0.25% to 79.72.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 96.643.