Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.62%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.62% to hit a new 6-months high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Janus Henderson Group PLC DRC (ASX:JHG), which rose 12.85% or 4.72 points to trade at 41.46 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 6.25% or 0.16 points to end at 2.72 and Unibail Rodamco Westfield (ASX:URW) was up 4.63% or 0.21 points to 4.75 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:RMS), which fell 7.58% or 0.08 points to trade at 0.98 at the close. Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) declined 7.17% or 0.10 points to end at 1.23 and Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) was down 6.76% or 0.15 points to 2.07.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 706 to 632 and 387 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 6.73% to 12.62.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.25% or 4.75 to $1,926.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.40% or 0.30 to hit $75.58 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.25 to trade at $81.92 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.23% to 0.71, while AUD/JPY fell 0.21% to 90.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 101.71.