Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Staples and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Incitec Pivot Ltd (AX:IPL), which rose 5.00% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.570 at the close. BT Investment Management Ltd (AX:BTT) added 4.99% or 0.535 points to end at 11.265 and Duluxgroup Ltd (AX:DLX) was up 4.63% or 0.310 points to 7.010 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which lost 2.68% or 0.055 points to trade at 1.995 in late trade. Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) declined 2.34% or 0.048 points to end at 1.982 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) shed 1.40% or 0.013 points to 0.882.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 692 to 391 and 370 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.18% to 13.869.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.28% or 3.43 to $1222.53 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.26% or 0.12 to hit $45.37 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.12 to trade at $47.62 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.33% to 0.7705, while AUD/JPY rose 0.25% to 87.10.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.22% at 95.34.