CANBERRA: Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Healthcare and IT sectors led shares higher. At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.60%. The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR), which rose 5.49% or 0.145 points to trade at 2.785 at the close. Meanwhile, Sirtex Medical Ltd (AX:SRX) added 4.59% or 0.770 points to end at 17.560 and CSR Ltd (AX:CSR) was up 4.36% or 0.190 points to 4.550 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Macquarie Atlas Roads Group (AX:MQA), which fell 5.95% or 0.290 points to trade at 4.580 at the close. Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX) declined 4.37% or 0.160 points to end at 3.500 and Vocus Fpo (AX:VOC) was down 3.63% or 0.160 points to 4.250. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 566 to 510 and 348 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 21.04% to 8.825 a new all time low. Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.51% or 6.15 to $1197.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.67% or 0.33 to hit $49.61 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.61% or 0.32 to trade at $52.51 a barrel. AUD/USD was up 0.17% to 0.7519, while AUD/JPY rose 0.51% to 86.72. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 101.88.
