Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT, Financials and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.20% to hit a new 3-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 9.57% or 0.045 points to trade at 0.515 at the close. Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX:CGC) added 4.87% or 0.150 points to end at 3.230 and Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (AX:QBE) was up 4.84% or 0.570 points to 12.350 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE), which lost 3.62% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.660 in late trade. M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) declined 2.38% or 0.035 points to end at 1.435 and Santos Ltd (AX:STO) shed 2.06% or 0.090 points to 4.270.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 670 to 383 and 295 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 4.34% to 12.297.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.18% or 2.15 to $1179.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.20% or 0.10 to hit $49.87 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.02% or 0.01 to trade at $53.01 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.28% to 0.7501, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 85.11.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.22% at 100.06.