Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Utilities and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.20%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ozforex Grp (AX:OFX), which rose 6.21% or 0.090 points to trade at 1.540 at the close. Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX:CGC) added 5.78% or 0.170 points to end at 3.110 and APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX:APO) was up 5.21% or 0.260 points to 5.250 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Isentia Group Ltd (AX:ISD), which lost 26.77% or 0.870 points to trade at 2.380 in late trade. Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM) declined 7.41% or 0.430 points to end at 5.370 and Syrah Res F (AX:SYR) shed 6.35% or 0.205 points to 3.025.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 574 to 477 and 291 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 5.85% to 13.444.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.20% or 2.45 to $1226.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.13% or 0.06 to hit $45.51 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.08 to trade at $46.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7478, while AUD/JPY fell 0.09% to 81.52.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 100.32.