Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.35%

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 gained 0.35%.

The best performers of the session on the were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:), which rose 13.54% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.27 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:) added 8.70% or 0.05 points to end at 0.63 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:) was up 7.65% or 0.03 points to 0.46 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX:), which fell 4.89% or 0.77 points to trade at 14.97 at the close. Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:) declined 2.10% or 0.17 points to end at 7.68 and JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX:) was down 1.89% or 1.08 points to 56.17.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 634 to 527 and 442 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.30% to 11.34.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.25% or 29.25 to $2,369.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.81% or 0.64 to hit $79.90 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.70% or 0.59 to trade at $84.47 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.13% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.08% to 102.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 105.13.