Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Real Estate Investment and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.93% to hit a new 3-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:PRU), which rose 5.58% or 0.14 points to trade at 2.65 at the close. Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN) added 4.63% or 0.19 points to end at 4.29 and Mirvac Group (ASX:MGR) was up 3.92% or 0.07 points to 1.92 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which lost 8.42% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.93 in late trade. Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX:NWL) declined 4.59% or 1.00 points to end at 20.91 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) shed 2.56% or 0.05 points to 1.72.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 697 to 450 and 407 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 1.67% to 11.35.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.24% or 5.75 to $2,385.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.72% or 0.59 to hit $82.69 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.72% or 0.61 to trade at $85.69 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.15% to 109.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 104.68.