Market Summary

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.50%.

Top Performers

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were:
– Appen Ltd (ASX:APX): rose 16.21% or 0.36 points to trade at 2.55 at the close.
– Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB): added 10.98% or 0.28 points to end at 2.83.
– St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM): up 10.00% or 0.02 points to 0.22 in late trade.

Worst Performers

The worst performers of the session were:
– Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH): fell 1.69% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.58 at the close.
– Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN): declined 2.27% or 0.07 points to end at 3.01.
– Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT): down 1.08% or 0.02 points to 1.38.

Market Statistics

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 694 to 358, with 432 ending unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 5.67% to 10.59.

Commodities

• Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.15% or 3.89 to $2,650.01 a troy ounce.
• Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.04% or 0.03 to hit $69.59 a barrel.
• The March Brent oil contract fell 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $72.83 a barrel.

Currency Exchange

• AUD/USD was unchanged 0.14% to 0.62.
• AUD/JPY fell 0.37% to 97.92.
• The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 107.94.