Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.33%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Energy , Healthcare and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.33%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX: BPT ), which rose 8.57% or 0.090 points to trade at 1.140 at the close. Nanosonics Ltd (AX: NAN ) added 4.72% or 0.120 points to end at 2.660 and Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (AX: AAC ) was up 4.25% or 0.055 points to 1.350 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (AX: CTD ), which lost 3.10% or 0.630 points to trade at 19.700 in late trade. Bapcor Ltd (AX: BAP ) declined 3.05% or 0.180 points to end at 5.720 and Infigen Energy (AX: IFN ) shed 2.90% or 0.020 points to 0.670.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 632 to 591 and 370 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.86% to 11.989.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.07% or 0.93 to $1274.13 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.37% or 0.21 to hit $57.61 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.45% or 0.28 to trade at $62.91 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.05% to 0.7563, while AUD/JPY rose 0.05% to 85.19.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 92.89.