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 0.78%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF), which rose 10.21% or 0.63 points to trade at 6.80 at the close. Ampol Ltd (ASX:ALD) added 7.70% or 1.59 points to end at 22.24 and Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) was up 5.60% or 0.20 points to 3.77 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN), which lost 8.04% or 0.39 points to trade at 4.46 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 5.88% or 0.05 points to end at 0.80 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) shed 3.78% or 0.07 points to 1.66.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 648 to 433 and 428 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 11.69% to 13.19.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.03% or 1.10 to $3,345.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.85% or 0.53 to hit $63.00 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.67% or 0.44 to trade at $66.29 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.52% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 90.46.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.27% at 99.42.