Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY), which rose 24.00% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.155 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) added 7.69% or 0.180 points to end at 2.520 and Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN) was up 5.41% or 0.010 points to 0.195 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN), which lost 6.14% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.070 in late trade. Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) declined 4.08% or 0.270 points to end at 6.340 and Syrah Res F (ASX:SYR) shed 3.57% or 0.090 points to 2.430.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 531 to 374 and 164 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 3.37% to 25.703.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.40% or 4.50 to $1136.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.70% or 0.31 to hit $44.79 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.72% or 0.34 to trade at $48.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.29% to 0.6982, while AUD/JPY fell 0.46% to 83.82.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.20% at 96.20.