Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials, Gold and Energy sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.51%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which rose 8.02% or 0.075 points to trade at 1.010 at the close. Meanwhile, Westpac Banking Corp (ASX:WBC) added 7.39% or 1.210 points to end at 17.580 and National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX:NAB) was up 6.86% or 1.180 points to 18.370 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND), which fell 4.01% or 0.43 points to trade at 10.30 at the close. Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT) declined 3.08% or 0.42 points to end at 13.20 and Tassal Group Ltd (ASX:TGR) was down 3.02% or 0.11 points to 3.53.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 801 to 444 and 361 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.02% to 19.051.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.12% or 2.25 to $1874.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.10% or 0.04 to hit $40.27 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.02 to trade at $41.92 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.26% to 0.7063, while AUD/JPY rose 0.15% to 74.36.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 94.330.