Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG), which rose 50.77% or 0.165 points to trade at 0.490 at the close. Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) added 25.60% or 0.750 points to end at 3.680 and Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN) was up 8.33% or 0.015 points to 0.195 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX:PDN), which lost 3.77% or 0.010 points to trade at 0.255 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) declined 3.60% or 0.080 points to end at 2.140 and Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN) shed 3.48% or 0.050 points to 1.385.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 631 to 316 and 173 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 5.67% to 17.448.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.41% or 4.80 to $1164.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.25% or 0.14 to hit $57.10 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.54% or 0.34 to trade at $62.34 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.7634, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 94.22.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.10% at 96.38.