Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Energy and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.36%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS), which rose 16.00% or 0.100 points to trade at 0.725 at the close. Healius Ltd (AX:HLS) added 12.82% or 0.300 points to end at 2.640 and Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA) was up 7.27% or 0.200 points to 2.950 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Independence Group NL (AX:IGO), which lost 7.36% or 0.290 points to trade at 3.650 in late trade. Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) declined 5.42% or 0.370 points to end at 6.460 and JB Hi-Fi Ltd (AX:JBH) shed 4.26% or 0.920 points to 20.680.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 580 to 430 and 319 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 4.34% to 18.572.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.62% or 7.90 to $1292.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 1.89% or 0.88 to hit $45.66 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 1.06% or 0.58 to trade at $54.33 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.58% to 0.6944, while AUD/JPY fell 2.30% to 74.28.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.29% at 96.148.