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 added 0.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 11.82% or 0.120 points to trade at 1.135 at the close. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) added 7.06% or 0.230 points to end at 3.490 and Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) was up 3.94% or 0.043 points to 1.123 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Seek Ltd (AX:SEK), which lost 6.05% or 0.980 points to trade at 15.220 in late trade. Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM) declined 5.33% or 0.340 points to end at 6.040 and Austal Ltd (AX:ASB) shed 3.39% or 0.043 points to 1.212.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 524 to 469 and 363 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 2.21% to 21.624 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.16% or 2.00 to $1268.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.85% or 0.42 to hit $49.55 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.84% or 0.42 to trade at $50.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.49% to 0.7533, while AUD/JPY rose 0.77% to 78.86.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.33% at 93.50.