Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Consumer Staples and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.21%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR), which rose 7.69% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.05 at the close. Meanwhile, Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) added 6.93% or 0.45 points to end at 6.94 and Alumina Ltd (ASX:AWC) was up 5.19% or 0.04 points to 0.81 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN), which fell 7.53% or 0.35 points to trade at 4.30 at the close. Brambles Ltd (ASX:BXB) declined 5.65% or 0.79 points to end at 13.19 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) was down 5.58% or 0.07 points to 1.10.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 618 to 572 and 368 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.23% to 14.00.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.07% or 1.30 to $1,998.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.74% or 1.45 to hit $84.66 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.71% or 1.50 to trade at $89.43 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.38% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY rose 0.16% to 95.24.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 106.35.