Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Gold, Energy and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.01%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL), which rose 26.09% or 0.300 points to trade at 1.450 at the close. Meanwhile, Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) added 10.43% or 0.110 points to end at 1.165 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) was up 9.01% or 0.105 points to 1.270 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which fell 4.50% or 0.280 points to trade at 5.940 at the close. Sonic Healthcare Ltd (ASX:SHL) declined 2.67% or 0.600 points to end at 21.860 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) was down 2.51% or 0.100 points to 3.890.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 574 to 372 and 166 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.74% to 14.451 a new 1-month low.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.03% or 0.40 to $1143.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.17% or 0.09 to hit $50.99 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.40% or 0.23 to trade at $57.15 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.7407, while AUD/JPY fell 0.07% to 91.86.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.09% at 97.67.