Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were South32 Ltd (AX:S32), which rose 9.44% or 0.235 points to trade at 2.725 at the close. Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) added 9.15% or 0.168 points to end at 1.998 and Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) was up 8.71% or 0.310 points to 3.870 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Syrah Res F (AX:SYR), which lost 3.21% or 0.090 points to trade at 2.710 in late trade. Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:SKT) declined 3.09% or 0.110 points to end at 3.450 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) shed 2.49% or 0.030 points to 1.175.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 698 to 441 and 321 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 5.22% to 12.174.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.21% or 2.65 to $1247.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.52% or 0.28 to hit $53.55 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.43% or 0.24 to trade at $56.12 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.7660, while AUD/JPY rose 0.02% to 87.32.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 101.89.