Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Gold and A-REITs sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.25%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL), which rose 7.81% or 1.06 points to trade at 14.64 at the close. Meanwhile, News Corp B DRC (ASX:NWS) added 7.62% or 3.16 points to end at 44.54 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) was up 7.19% or 0.06 points to 0.82 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which fell 3.11% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.94 at the close. Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN) declined 1.67% or 0.05 points to end at 2.95 and Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (ASX:QBE) was down 1.65% or 0.27 points to 16.06.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 773 to 330 and 391 ended unchanged.
Shares in News Corp B DRC (ASX:NWS) rose to all time highs; gaining 7.62% or 3.16 to 44.54.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.67% to 14.45.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.26% or 6.40 to $2,456.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to hit $76.19 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $79.10 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.06% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.01% to 97.02.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 102.96.