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 1.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT), which rose 10.83% or 0.065 points to trade at 0.665 at the close. Santos Ltd (AX:STO) added 7.92% or 0.270 points to end at 3.680 and Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) was up 7.70% or 0.605 points to 8.465 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ioof Holdings Ltd (AX:IFL), which lost 3.75% or 0.340 points to trade at 8.720 in late trade. Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (AX:MMS) declined 3.59% or 0.440 points to end at 11.800 and Cromwell Property Group (AX:CMW) shed 2.56% or 0.025 points to 0.950.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 716 to 395 and 346 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 2.26% to 13.612.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.21% or 2.75 to $1326.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.17% or 0.08 to hit $47.13 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $49.24 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.7683, while AUD/JPY rose 0.83% to 78.08.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.12% at 95.42.