Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.72%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Friday, as gains in the Financials , Utilities and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.72%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nanosonics Ltd (AX: NAN ), which rose 4.97% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.590 at the close. Spark Infrastructure Group (AX: SKI ) added 3.21% or 0.070 points to end at 2.250 and Atlas Arteria (AX: ALX ) was up 2.81% or 0.190 points to 6.950 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (AX: SDA ), which lost 3.96% or 0.165 points to trade at 4.005 in late trade. Blackmores Ltd (AX: BKL ) declined 3.25% or 4.45 points to end at 132.53 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX: A2M ) shed 2.27% or 0.240 points to 10.310.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 688 to 443 and 369 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 5.48% to 10.654 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.03% or 0.40 to $1187.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.26% or 0.19 to hit $72.31 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.18% or 0.15 to trade at $81.53 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.7222, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 81.94.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 94.56.