Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT, Energy and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.30%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which rose 8.49% or 0.090 points to trade at 1.150 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) added 7.60% or 0.760 points to end at 10.760 and Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC) was up 6.98% or 0.110 points to 1.685 in late trade.
Biggest losers included G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which lost 3.06% or 0.100 points to trade at 3.170 in late trade. Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (AX:CTD) declined 2.64% or 0.650 points to end at 23.930 and Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK) shed 2.23% or 0.080 points to 3.500.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 655 to 508 and 329 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 4.93% to 11.773.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.39% or 5.05 to $1304.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.26% or 0.15 to hit $58.41 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.34% or 0.23 to trade at $67.78 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.43% to 0.7063, while AUD/JPY fell 0.06% to 78.79.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 96.632.