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 0.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Virtus Health Ltd (AX:VRT), which rose 7.60% or 0.550 points to trade at 7.790 at the close. Cimic Group Ltd (AX:CIM) added 6.94% or 1.970 points to end at 30.370 and Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT) was up 5.97% or 0.225 points to 3.995 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Invocare Ltd (AX:IVC), which lost 4.60% or 0.640 points to trade at 13.280 in late trade. Trade Me Group Ltd (AX:TME) declined 4.36% or 0.210 points to end at 4.610 and Spotless Fp (AX:SPO) shed 3.67% or 0.040 points to 1.050.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 564 to 458 and 332 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 2.67% to 12.919.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.19% or 2.35 to $1272.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.50% or 0.26 to hit $51.56 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.40% or 0.21 to trade at $52.46 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.73% to 0.7667, while AUD/JPY fell 0.44% to 79.53.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.17% at 98.04.