Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Gold and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.69%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Xero Ltd (AX:XRO), which rose 10.75% or 5.840 points to trade at 60.150 at the close. Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC) added 6.81% or 0.130 points to end at 2.040 and oOh!Media Ltd (AX:OML) was up 5.34% or 0.190 points to 3.750 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Westpac Banking Corp (AX:WBC), which lost 4.22% or 1.135 points to trade at 25.755 in late trade. Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (AX:MMS) declined 4.02% or 0.530 points to end at 12.670 and GWA Group Ltd (AX:GWA) shed 3.33% or 0.110 points to 3.190.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 682 to 452 and 391 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 0.38% to 13.460.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.02% or 0.25 to $1297.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.55% or 0.34 to hit $62.36 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.40% or 0.29 to trade at $72.06 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.22% to 0.6912, while AUD/JPY fell 0.32% to 75.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 97.347.