Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Consumer Discretionary and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.65%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN), which rose 18.04% or 0.350 points to trade at 2.290 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) added 8.29% or 0.180 points to end at 2.350 and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG) was up 8.01% or 0.250 points to 3.370 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO), which lost 7.69% or 0.010 points to trade at 0.120 in late trade. Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI) declined 6.25% or 0.010 points to end at 0.150 and BC Iron Ltd (ASX:BCI) shed 4.17% or 0.015 points to 0.345.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 558 to 426 and 131 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 3.15% to 14.360.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.36% or 4.30 to $1203.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.84% or 0.42 to hit $49.67 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.08% or 0.04 to trade at $56.78 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.03% to 0.7595, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 90.79.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.23% at 98.30.