Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.37%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.37% to hit a new all time high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 34.64% or 0.62 points to trade at 2.41 at the close. Meanwhile, Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) added 8.57% or 0.14 points to end at 1.71 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was up 7.77% or 0.22 points to 3.05 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Medibank Private Ltd (ASX:MPL), which fell 2.52% or 0.13 points to trade at 5.02 at the close. Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN) declined 2.30% or 0.09 points to end at 3.83 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) was down 2.61% or 0.03 points to 1.12.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 732 to 387 and 460 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 6.14% to 11.87 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.02% or 0.74 to $3,344.56 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.90% or 0.61 to hit $68.15 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.83% or 0.58 to trade at $70.10 a barrel.

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AUD/USD was unchanged 0.34% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY rose 0.34% to 96.75.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 98.25.

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