Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Resources and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.93% to hit a new 3-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR), which rose 9.78% or 0.630 points to trade at 7.070 at the close. Santos Ltd (AX:STO) added 9.14% or 0.385 points to end at 4.595 and Origin Energy Ltd (AX:ORG) was up 8.51% or 0.434 points to 5.534 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR), which lost 8.29% or 0.340 points to trade at 3.760 in late trade. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) declined 3.83% or 0.090 points to end at 2.260 and Mirvac Group (AX:MGR) shed 3.80% or 0.075 points to 1.900.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 635 to 411 and 306 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 up 2.88% to 16.026.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.07% or 0.90 to $1255.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.59% or 0.26 to hit $44.44 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.63% or 0.29 to trade at $46.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.23% to 0.7813, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 85.69.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 94.50.