Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.50% By Investing.com

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the added 0.50%.

The best performers of the session on the were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:), which rose 5.95% or 0.56 points to trade at 9.97 at the close. Meanwhile, Zip Co Ltd (ASX:) added 5.60% or 0.04 points to end at 0.66 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:) was up 4.76% or 0.03 points to 0.55 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:), which fell 5.63% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.76 at the close. Janus Henderson Group PLC DRC (ASX:) declined 3.72% or 1.30 points to end at 33.64 and Blackmores Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.72% or 2.51 points to 65.00.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 646 to 591 and 376 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.28% to 15.25.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 1.07% or 17.40 to $1,648.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 2.15% or 1.90 to hit $90.07 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 1.90% or 1.80 to trade at $96.47 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.78% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY rose 0.51% to 93.69.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.22% at 112.55.