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 gained 0.52%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 8.06% or 0.25 points to trade at 3.35 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 6.82% or 0.18 points to end at 2.82 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was up 4.44% or 0.01 points to 0.24 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Technology One Ltd (ASX:TNE), which lost 2.20% or 0.69 points to trade at 30.62 in late trade. Bapcor Ltd (ASX:BAP) declined 1.91% or 0.09 points to end at 4.63 and Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN) shed 1.61% or 0.10 points to 6.11.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 579 to 469 and 432 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 1.83% to 11.11.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.25% or 6.51 to $2,647.51 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.25% or 0.18 to hit $71.90 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.23% or 0.17 to trade at $74.81 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.37% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY rose 0.60% to 97.68.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 108.20.