Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Industrials and Information Technology sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.98%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Transfield Services Ltd (ASX:TSE), which rose 8.43% or 0.110 points to trade at 1.415 at the close. Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX:PDN) added 7.04% or 0.025 points to end at 0.380 and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG) was up 6.69% or 0.210 points to 3.350 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Panaust Ltd (ASX:PNA), which lost 4.60% or 0.055 points to trade at 1.140 in late trade. Beadell Resources Ltd (ASX:BDR) declined 4.08% or 0.010 points to end at 0.235 and Fairfax Media Ltd (ASX:FXJ) shed 3.70% or 0.035 points to 0.910.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 355 to 224 and 59 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 6.66% to 13.995.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.61% or 7.00 to $1157.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April rose 0.38% or 0.18 to hit $48.35 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.48% or 0.28 to trade at $58.14 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.26% to 0.7617, while AUD/JPY rose 0.22% to 92.44.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.14% at 99.78.