Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Financials and Consumer Staples sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.80%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Res F (AX:SYR), which rose 5.77% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.750 at the close. Meanwhile, Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) added 5.68% or 0.090 points to end at 1.680 and Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (AX:AAC) was up 4.72% or 0.075 points to 1.665 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Downer Edi Ltd (AX:DOW), which fell 20.71% or 1.450 points to trade at 5.550 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) declined 3.76% or 0.080 points to end at 2.050 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) was down 3.58% or 0.050 points to 1.345.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 565 to 467 and 406 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.13% to 11.873.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.39% or 4.85 to $1242.35 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.23% or 0.11 to hit $47.81 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.12% or 0.06 to trade at $50.62 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7617, while AUD/JPY rose 0.24% to 84.80.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.23% at 99.79.