Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Utilities, Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.13%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Infigen Energy (AX:IFN), which rose 4.73% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.775 at the close. Premier Investments Ltd (AX:PMV) added 3.93% or 0.495 points to end at 13.075 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL) was up 3.36% or 0.360 points to 11.080 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL), which lost 3.97% or 0.150 points to trade at 3.630 in late trade. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) declined 3.66% or 0.050 points to end at 1.315 and OZ Minerals Ltd (AX:OZL) shed 3.21% or 0.240 points to 7.230.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 654 to 535 and 365 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 3.91% to 11.861 a new 3-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.44% or 5.64 to $1282.16 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.21% or 0.11 to hit $52.03 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.19 to trade at $57.38 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.43% to 0.7815, while AUD/JPY fell 0.20% to 88.38.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 93.46.