Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.99% By Stuffsearth.com

Stuffsearth.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the rose 0.99% to hit a new all time high.

The best performers of the session on the were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:), which rose 12.12% or 0.06 points to trade at 0.56 at the close. Meanwhile, Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:) added 10.26% or 0.04 points to end at 0.43 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:) was up 6.34% or 0.09 points to 1.51 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:), which fell 7.33% or 0.11 points to trade at 1.39 at the close. G8 Education Ltd (ASX:) declined 3.23% or 0.04 points to end at 1.20 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.15% or 0.04 points to 1.23.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 0 to 0.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.62% to 9.79 a new 3-months low.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.90% or 42.10 to $2,254.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 2.16% or 1.76 to hit $83.11 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $86.99 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.05% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.10% to 98.51.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 104.27.