Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.28%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Metals & Mining , Resources and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.28%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Programmed Maintenance Services Ltd (AX: PRG ), which rose 17.65% or 0.285 points to trade at 1.900 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX: WHC ) added 9.67% or 0.073 points to end at 0.823 and Iluka Resources Ltd (AX: ILU ) was up 7.04% or 0.420 points to 6.390 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Spotless Fp (AX: SPO ), which lost 9.48% or 0.110 points to trade at 1.050 in late trade. Suncorp Group Ltd (AX: SUN ) declined 4.32% or 0.570 points to end at 12.620 and Ardent Leisure Group (AX: AAD ) shed 3.66% or 0.085 points to 2.235.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 553 to 433 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 up 0.16% to 16.885 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.51% or 6.25 to $1230.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.67% or 0.33 to hit $49.89 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.74% or 0.37 to trade at $50.11 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.25% to 0.7216, while AUD/JPY fell 0.28% to 79.09.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.26% at 95.15.

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