Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Resources and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Santos Ltd (AX:STO), which rose 12.21% or 0.480 points to trade at 4.410 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) added 11.25% or 0.090 points to end at 0.890 and Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) was up 10.29% or 0.890 points to 9.540 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which lost 6.81% or 0.065 points to trade at 0.890 in late trade. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) declined 6.49% or 0.125 points to end at 1.800 and Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX) shed 6.35% or 0.290 points to 4.280.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 538 to 524 and 302 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 1.48% to 12.350.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.22% or 2.60 to $1176.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 1.03% or 0.51 to hit $49.95 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.16% or 0.60 to trade at $52.44 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.42% to 0.7413, while AUD/JPY rose 0.02% to 84.51.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.21% at 101.42.