Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Healthcare and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.88%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ausdrill Ltd (AX:ASL), which rose 7.37% or 0.080 points to trade at 1.165 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) added 6.46% or 0.440 points to end at 7.250 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) was up 6.06% or 0.710 points to 12.420 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA), which lost 4.97% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.870 in late trade. Healthscope (AX:HSO) declined 1.38% or 0.030 points to end at 2.150 and Unibail Rodamco Westfield (AX:URW) shed 0.90% or 0.10 points to 10.97.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 751 to 252 and 338 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 5.90% to 18.585.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.13% or 1.60 to $1271.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 1.05% or 0.49 to hit $46.12 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 1.12% or 0.62 to trade at $54.67 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.20% to 0.7054, while AUD/JPY fell 0.33% to 78.44.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 96.410.