Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT, Telecoms Services and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 13.61% or 0.460 points to trade at 3.840 at the close. Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA) added 9.37% or 0.310 points to end at 3.620 and Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT) was up 8.00% or 0.340 points to 4.590 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN), which lost 7.03% or 0.310 points to trade at 4.100 in late trade. Reliance Worldwide Corporation (Aust) Pty Ltd (AX:RWC) declined 4.06% or 0.155 points to end at 3.665 and Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (AX:SKC) shed 3.23% or 0.115 points to 3.445.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 708 to 465 and 341 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 4.18% to 12.506.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.49% or 6.38 to $1307.72 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.11% or 0.05 to hit $45.91 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.06% or 0.03 to trade at $50.70 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.09% to 0.7896, while AUD/JPY rose 0.18% to 87.32.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 92.97.