Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Utilities, Telecoms Services and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 7.49% or 0.115 points to trade at 1.650 at the close. Orica Ltd (AX:ORI) added 6.01% or 1.120 points to end at 19.770 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 4.64% or 0.160 points to 3.610 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Adelaide Brighton Ltd (AX:ABC), which lost 10.26% or 0.430 points to trade at 3.760 in late trade. Graincorp Ltd (AX:GNC) declined 4.27% or 0.340 points to end at 7.630 and Fletcher Building Ltd (AX:FBU) shed 3.43% or 0.170 points to 4.790.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 643 to 521 and 359 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 1.62% to 13.819.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.13% or 1.65 to $1283.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.69% or 0.43 to hit $61.69 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.77% or 0.54 to trade at $69.83 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.6979, while AUD/JPY fell 0.32% to 76.69.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 97.333.