Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.78%

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 0.78%.

The best performers of the session on the were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:), which rose 8.17% or 0.11 points to trade at 1.39 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:) added 7.27% or 0.02 points to end at 0.29 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:) was up 4.76% or 0.13 points to 2.86 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX:), which fell 5.39% or 0.78 points to trade at 13.68 at the close. Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (ASX:) declined 2.02% or 0.08 points to end at 3.89 and Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX:) was down 1.84% or 0.07 points to 3.74.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 782 to 463 and 429 ended unchanged.

Shares in Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 8.17% or 0.11 to 1.39.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.22% to 11.80.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.26% or 5.10 to $1,958.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.29% or 0.22 to hit $76.67 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.27 to trade at $81.09 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.31% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY fell 0.11% to 95.00.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 99.59.