Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Energy, Consumer Staples and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.50%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM), which rose 4.13% or 0.145 points to trade at 3.655 at the close. Meanwhile, Greencross Ltd (ASX:GXL) added 4.07% or 0.300 points to end at 7.670 and Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN) was up 3.75% or 0.008 points to 0.207 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which fell 4.10% or 0.078 points to trade at 1.812 at the close. Skilled Group Ltd (ASX:SKE) declined 4.04% or 0.055 points to end at 1.305 and Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR) was down 3.45% or 0.150 points to 4.200.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 504 to 438 and 194 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 11.96% to 12.507.
Gold for June delivery was up 0.22% or 2.60 to $1196.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.05% or 0.03 to hit $50.77 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.05 to trade at $56.71 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.02% to 0.7690, while AUD/JPY fell 0.09% to 92.67.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.08% at 99.17.