Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Utilities, A-REITs and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.08%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M), which rose 9.55% or 0.320 points to trade at 3.670 at the close. Meanwhile, Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN) added 5.51% or 0.140 points to end at 2.680 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was up 4.35% or 0.068 points to 1.617 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN), which fell 5.07% or 0.545 points to trade at 10.205 at the close. Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX) declined 4.77% or 0.205 points to end at 4.095 and Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) was down 4.58% or 0.070 points to 1.460.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 602 to 542 and 373 ended unchanged.
Shares in A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) rose to all time highs; rising 9.55% or 0.320 to 3.670.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.10% to 12.462.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.08% or 0.96 to $1255.56 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.04% or 0.02 to hit $44.48 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.11% or 0.05 to trade at $46.97 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7591, while AUD/JPY rose 0.36% to 84.39.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.53.