Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Energy and Resources sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.52%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Broadspectrum Ltd (AX:BRS), which rose 32.37% or 0.363 points to trade at 1.482 at the close. Meanwhile, Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) added 8.03% or 0.055 points to end at 0.740 and Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL) was up 5.61% or 8.550 points to 160.840 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which fell 6.36% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.210 at the close. Breville Group Ltd (AX:BRG) declined 2.55% or 0.215 points to end at 8.215 and Macquarie Group Ltd (AX:MQG) was down 2.60% or 1.700 points to 63.600.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 591 to 457 and 313 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.28% to 17.942.
Gold for June delivery was up 0.85% or 10.75 to $1277.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $46.02 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $47.77 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.38% to 0.7655, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 82.14.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.37% at 93.38.