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 AP Eagers Ltd (ASX:), which rose 9.87% or 0.45 points to trade at 5.01 at the close. Meanwhile, Webjet Ltd (ASX:) added 9.33% or 0.25 points to end at 2.93 and Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:) was up 8.14% or 0.81 points to 10.76 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:), which fell 3.95% or 0.300 points to trade at 7.290 at the close. Independence Group NL (ASX:) declined 3.85% or 0.180 points to end at 4.490 and Alumina Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.48% or 0.055 points to 1.525.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 772 to 453 and 326 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.98% to 27.385.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.17% or 2.90 to $1728.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 5.99% or 1.41 to hit $24.96 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 4.07% or 1.20 to trade at $30.66 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.54% to 0.6529, while AUD/JPY rose 0.70% to 69.46.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 99.755.