Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Financials and Industrials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.53%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Santos Ltd (AX:STO), which rose 7.95% or 0.240 points to trade at 3.260 at the close. APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX:APO) added 3.56% or 0.170 points to end at 4.950 and Carsales.Com Ltd (AX:CAR) was up 3.33% or 0.400 points to 12.400 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR), which lost 10.74% or 0.088 points to trade at 0.728 in late trade. Fletcher Building Ltd (AX:FBU) declined 5.75% or 0.430 points to end at 7.050 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) shed 3.53% or 0.190 points to 5.190.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 540 to 532 and 358 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 6.46% to 12.407.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.37% or 4.59 to $1237.41 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.11% or 0.05 to hit $47.27 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.04 to trade at $49.66 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.36% to 0.7924, while AUD/JPY fell 0.17% to 88.88.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 94.71.