Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, IT and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.52%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which rose 11.01% or 0.093 points to trade at 0.932 at the close. Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) added 4.87% or 0.450 points to end at 9.690 and Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX:CGC) was up 4.14% or 0.285 points to 7.175 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which lost 7.44% or 0.390 points to trade at 4.850 in late trade. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN) declined 4.03% or 0.150 points to end at 3.570 and Navitas Ltd (AX:NVT) shed 3.75% or 0.185 points to 4.745.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 630 to 567 and 371 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 7.68% to 15.460.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.59% or 7.90 to $1332.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.43% or 0.27 to hit $63.64 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.49% or 0.33 to trade at $68.35 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.32% to 0.7690, while AUD/JPY fell 0.22% to 82.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 89.87.