Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Australian Real Estate Investment Trust and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.86%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:SIP), which rose 9.30% or 0.080 points to trade at 0.940 at the close. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) added 6.70% or 0.125 points to end at 1.990 and Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) was up 6.49% or 0.810 points to 13.300 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX:MYR), which lost 10.13% or 0.155 points to trade at 1.375 in late trade. Horizon Oil Ltd (ASX:HZN) declined 8.00% or 0.010 points to end at 0.115 and Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO) shed 6.67% or 0.010 points to 0.140.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 390 to 198 and 44 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 6.48% to 13.243 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 1.63% or 18.80 to $1170.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in May fell 1.93% or 0.90 to hit $45.75 a barrel, while the May Brent Oil contract fell 2.28% or 1.29 to trade at $55.32 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.53% to 0.7730, while AUD/JPY fell 0.21% to 93.16.
The US Dollar Index was up 1.20% at 98.55.