Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, A-REITs and Metals & Mining sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.07% to hit a new 52-week high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND), which rose 5.93% or 0.64 points to trade at 11.43 at the close. Meanwhile, Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) added 4.64% or 0.080 points to end at 1.805 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) was up 4.58% or 0.41 points to 9.36 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Origin Energy Ltd (ASX:ORG), which fell 8.94% or 0.420 points to trade at 4.280 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) declined 5.29% or 2.39 points to end at 42.79 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) was down 4.49% or 0.070 points to 1.490.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 768 to 565 and 414 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.36% to 11.088.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.21% or 3.75 to $1763.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.32% or 0.20 to hit $63.66 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.36% or 0.24 to trade at $67.18 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7740, while AUD/JPY rose 0.06% to 84.32.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 91.703.