Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Consumer Discretionary and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Genworth Fp (AX:GMA), which rose 8.26% or 0.190 points to trade at 2.490 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) added 6.64% or 0.160 points to end at 2.570 and IPH Ltd (AX:IPH) was up 6.53% or 0.400 points to 6.530 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR), which lost 3.93% or 0.220 points to trade at 5.380 in late trade. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) declined 3.38% or 0.070 points to end at 2.000 and OZ Minerals Ltd (AX:OZL) shed 2.14% or 0.110 points to 5.030.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 594 to 335 and 301 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 4.07% to 16.327.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.11% or 1.30 to $1229.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.15% or 0.44 to hit $37.88 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.90% or 0.36 to trade at $39.69 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.26% to 0.7651, while AUD/JPY fell 0.39% to 85.90.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.14% at 94.92.