Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.96%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 15.70% or 0.380 points to trade at 2.800 at the close. Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) added 12.73% or 0.140 points to end at 1.240 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) was up 9.05% or 0.220 points to 2.650 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which lost 5.37% or 0.290 points to trade at 5.110 in late trade. Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH) declined 5.17% or 0.015 points to end at 0.275 and Resmed Inc (AX:RMD) shed 3.75% or 0.290 points to 7.450.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 530 to 375 and 316 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 7.70% to 15.324 a new 6-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 2.43% or 29.90 to $1259.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.46% or 0.56 to hit $39.02 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.67% or 0.27 to trade at $40.60 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.81% to 0.7612, while AUD/JPY rose 0.29% to 85.25.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.10% at 95.60.