Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Utilities, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.39%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC), which rose 5.71% or 1.420 points to trade at 26.270 at the close. Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) added 5.08% or 0.530 points to end at 10.960 and Estia Health Ltd (ASX:EHE) was up 4.25% or 0.110 points to 2.700 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ausdrill Ltd (ASX:ASL), which lost 6.79% or 0.095 points to trade at 1.305 in late trade. Emeco Holdings Ltd (ASX:EHL) declined 5.20% or 0.090 points to end at 1.640 and Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA) shed 5.07% or 0.190 points to 3.560.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 611 to 563 and 388 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 0.10% to 14.272.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.22% or 2.95 to $1336.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.35% or 0.18 to hit $51.86 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.40% or 0.24 to trade at $60.87 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.6973, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 75.40.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 97.240.