Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Healthcare and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.46%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 15.34% or 0.240 points to trade at 1.805 at the close. APN News & Media Ltd (AX:APN) added 10.99% or 0.050 points to end at 0.505 and Syrah Res F (AX:SYR) was up 9.15% or 0.300 points to 3.580 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH), which lost 17.21% or 0.185 points to trade at 0.890 in late trade. ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ) declined 4.89% or 0.180 points to end at 3.500 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) shed 4.40% or 0.020 points to 0.435.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 597 to 392 and 124 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 11.94% to 17.602.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.92% or 9.90 to $1066.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.24% or 0.09 to hit $35.44 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.65% or 0.24 to trade at $37.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.62% to 0.7186, while AUD/JPY fell 0.57% to 87.89.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.33% at 98.73.