Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.21%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.21% to hit a new all time high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH), which rose 8.14% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.47 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 5.26% or 0.02 points to end at 0.30 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) was up 5.13% or 0.05 points to 1.02 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Inghams Group Ltd (ASX:ING), which fell 3.93% or 0.12 points to trade at 2.93 at the close. EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) declined 3.73% or 0.03 points to end at 0.65 and IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) was down 3.65% or 0.19 points to 5.01.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 551 to 543 and 451 ended unchanged.

Shares in Inghams Group Ltd (ASX:ING) fell to 52-week lows; falling 3.93% or 0.12 to 2.93. Shares in EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) fell to 52-week lows; down 3.73% or 0.03 to 0.65.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.80% to 11.68.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.39% or 10.15 to $2,624.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.04% or 0.03 to hit $71.13 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.06 to trade at $74.82 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.16% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.32% to 96.89.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 100.18.