Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which rose 7.99% or 0.270 points to trade at 3.650 at the close. Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (AX:ALL) added 7.98% or 2.220 points to end at 30.030 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) was up 5.32% or 0.495 points to 9.795 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Technology One Ltd (AX:TNE), which lost 5.70% or 0.260 points to trade at 4.300 in late trade. Monadelphous Group Ltd (AX:MND) declined 4.89% or 0.770 points to end at 14.970 and Ausdrill Ltd (AX:ASL) shed 4.58% or 0.120 points to 2.500.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 623 to 572 and 391 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 0.93% to 13.478.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.28% or 3.60 to $1293.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.32% or 0.23 to hit $71.61 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.38% or 0.30 to trade at $79.50 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.01% to 0.7561, while AUD/JPY fell 0.52% to 82.78.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 93.82.