Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.65%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS), which rose 15.00% or 0.105 points to trade at 0.805 at the close. Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) added 3.76% or 0.025 points to end at 0.690 and TPG Telecom Ltd (AX:TPM) was up 3.53% or 0.240 points to 7.040 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Eclipx Group Ltd (AX:ECX), which lost 4.29% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.670 in late trade. Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) declined 3.03% or 0.015 points to end at 0.480 and Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM) shed 2.95% or 0.140 points to 4.610.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 635 to 463 and 368 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 2.88% to 11.920.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.01% or 0.15 to $1316.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.47% or 0.28 to hit $59.13 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.33% or 0.22 to trade at $67.02 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.25% to 0.7102, while AUD/JPY fell 0.13% to 78.18.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 96.377.