Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Telecoms Services and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Credit Corp Group Ltd (AX:CCP), which rose 11.20% or 1.110 points to trade at 11.020 at the close. Macquarie Atlas Roads Group (AX:MQA) added 5.83% or 0.240 points to end at 4.360 and G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) was up 4.97% or 0.170 points to 3.590 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH), which lost 14.29% or 0.105 points to trade at 0.630 in late trade. AWE Ltd (AX:AWE) declined 11.50% or 0.065 points to end at 0.500 and G.U.D. Holdings Ltd (AX:GUD) shed 5.61% or 0.400 points to 6.730.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 508 to 484 and 173 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 3.48% to 21.149.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.14% or 1.60 to $1117.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 1.53% or 0.49 to hit $31.80 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 1.40% or 0.47 to trade at $33.45 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.29% to 0.7046, while AUD/JPY rose 0.25% to 83.60.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.11% at 99.14.