Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Information Technology and Gold sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Horizon Oil Ltd (ASX:HZN), which rose 7.69% or 0.010 points to trade at 0.140 at the close. Pact Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:PGH) added 6.81% or 0.28 points to end at 4.39 and Sirius Resources NL (ASX:SIR) was up 6.55% or 0.180 points to 2.930 in late trade.
Biggest losers included CSR Ltd (ASX:CSR), which lost 6.92% or 0.290 points to trade at 3.900 in late trade. Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) declined 4.72% or 0.400 points to end at 8.070 and Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI) shed 4.65% or 0.010 points to 0.205.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 308 to 267 and 36 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 3.58% to 13.441 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.22% or 2.60 to $1203.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 0.46% or 0.23 to hit $51.77 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.47% or 0.28 to trade at $60.62 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7818, while AUD/JPY rose 0.10% to 93.68.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.16% at 96.13.