Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT, Healthcare and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Codan Ltd (ASX:CDA), which rose 7.30% or 0.78 points to trade at 11.46 at the close. Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN) added 4.74% or 0.14 points to end at 2.99 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX:A2M) was up 4.51% or 0.31 points to 7.18 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which lost 8.16% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.22 in late trade. ASX Ltd (ASX:ASX) declined 8.01% or 5.06 points to end at 58.14 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) shed 5.10% or 0.03 points to 0.47.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 594 to 555 and 477 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 6.70% to 10.90.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 1.11% or 26.05 to $2,328.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.36% or 0.28 to hit $78.22 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.35% or 0.29 to trade at $82.31 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.29% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.02% to 104.46.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.19% at 104.42.