Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Resources, Metals & Mining and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.55%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Cimic Group Ltd (AX:CIM), which rose 5.70% or 2.290 points to trade at 42.470 at the close. Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) added 5.49% or 0.045 points to end at 0.865 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) was up 4.53% or 0.450 points to 10.390 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which lost 6.40% or 0.370 points to trade at 5.410 in late trade. Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG) declined 4.93% or 0.035 points to end at 0.675 and Carsales.Com Ltd (AX:CAR) shed 2.72% or 0.400 points to 14.280.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 628 to 573 and 420 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 6.96% to 10.544.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.02% or 0.30 to $1301.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.59% or 0.38 to hit $65.11 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.69% or 0.52 to trade at $75.88 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.16% to 0.7657, while AUD/JPY fell 0.34% to 84.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.16% at 93.46.