Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Healthcare, A-REITs and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.68%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS), which rose 12.06% or 0.155 points to trade at 1.440 at the close. Meanwhile, Flexigroup Ltd (ASX:FXL) added 5.17% or 0.180 points to end at 3.660 and Qube Holdings Ltd (ASX:QUB) was up 4.68% or 0.130 points to 2.910 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Sundance Energy Australia Ltd (ASX:SEA), which fell 6.67% or 0.045 points to trade at 0.630 at the close. Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) declined 5.93% or 0.035 points to end at 0.555 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) was down 5.00% or 0.020 points to 0.380.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 548 to 465 and 193 ended unchanged.
Shares in Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) fell to 3-years lows; falling 5.93% or 0.035 to 0.555.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.89% to 16.421.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.38% or 4.60 to $1220.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.19% or 0.12 to hit $59.77 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $66.64 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.33% to 0.8056, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 96.18.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 93.38.