Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.23%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the IT, Metals&Mining and Materials sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.23%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which rose 6.21% or 0.40 points to trade at 6.84 at the close. Meanwhile, Adbri Ltd (ASX:ABC) added 5.64% or 0.11 points to end at 2.06 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 4.23% or 0.04 points to 0.98 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Fisher&Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH), which fell 6.29% or 1.51 points to trade at 22.48 at the close. CSR Ltd (ASX:CSR) declined 5.05% or 0.27 points to end at 5.08 and Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) was down 2.42% or 0.31 points to 12.52.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 628 to 590 and 456 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.29% to 12.26.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.63% or 12.30 to $1,956.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.14% or 0.10 to hit $71.93 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.07% or 0.05 to trade at $76.21 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.16% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.14% to 90.99.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 104.04.