Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, IT and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.06%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which rose 14.10% or 1.600 points to trade at 12.950 at the close. Steadfast Group Ltd (AX:SDF) added 7.66% or 0.210 points to end at 2.950 and Credit Corp Group Ltd (AX:CCP) was up 6.05% or 1.140 points to 19.990 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which lost 7.52% or 0.690 points to trade at 8.490 in late trade. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) declined 7.07% or 0.270 points to end at 3.550 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) shed 5.58% or 0.130 points to 2.200.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 597 to 561 and 350 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 1.69% to 16.241.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.12% or 1.50 to $1225.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.04% or 0.03 to hit $69.72 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.02% or 0.02 to trade at $80.03 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.21% to 0.7124, while AUD/JPY rose 0.06% to 80.13.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 95.44.