Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Resources and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Santos Ltd (AX:STO), which rose 13.24% or 0.580 points to trade at 4.960 at the close. Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ) added 9.14% or 0.062 points to end at 0.740 and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN) was up 4.24% or 0.160 points to 3.930 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which lost 3.35% or 0.105 points to trade at 3.025 in late trade. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) declined 2.89% or 0.175 points to end at 5.885 and Regis Healthcare Ltd (AX:REG) shed 2.64% or 0.100 points to 3.690.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 639 to 569 and 339 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 1.14% to 13.347 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.06% or 0.82 to $1276.88 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.09% or 0.05 to hit $55.38 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.12 to trade at $61.99 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.07% to 0.7594, while AUD/JPY rose 0.22% to 85.85.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 93.82.