Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.13%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which rose 9.71% or 0.185 points to trade at 2.090 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) added 7.12% or 0.110 points to end at 1.655 and Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF) was up 5.40% or 0.350 points to 6.830 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL), which lost 9.23% or 0.125 points to trade at 1.230 in late trade. Spotless Fp (ASX:SPO) declined 6.17% or 0.150 points to end at 2.280 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) shed 5.88% or 0.140 points to 2.240.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 503 to 493 and 174 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 0.24% to 15.466.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.02% or 0.20 to $1187.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.53% or 0.29 to hit $55.87 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.61% or 0.38 to trade at $62.35 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.35% to 0.7729, while AUD/JPY fell 0.40% to 92.61.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.35% at 98.58.