Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Resources and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.35%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (AX:NEC), which rose 5.95% or 0.14 points to trade at 2.40 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) added 5.69% or 0.950 points to end at 17.650 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) was up 4.70% or 0.035 points to 0.780 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Myob Group Ltd (AX:MYO), which lost 8.01% or 0.245 points to trade at 2.815 in late trade. Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG) declined 5.65% or 0.050 points to end at 0.835 and Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Ltd (AX:GMA) shed 2.98% or 0.075 points to 2.445.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 736 to 497 and 377 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 7.39% to 12.225.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.12% or 1.60 to $1303.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.06% or 0.04 to hit $68.17 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.13 to trade at $77.59 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.15% to 0.7565, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 82.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 93.94.