Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.37%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrials , IT and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.37%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX: APT ), which rose 24.54% or 2.680 points to trade at 13.600 at the close. Cimic Group Ltd (AX: CIM ) added 15.47% or 6.620 points to end at 49.420 and Mineral Resources Ltd (AX: MIN ) was up 8.30% or 1.270 points to 16.580 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Bega Cheese Ltd (AX: BGA ), which lost 5.87% or 0.470 points to trade at 7.540 in late trade. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX: EVN ) declined 4.76% or 0.150 points to end at 3.000 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX: SAR ) shed 2.82% or 0.060 points to 2.070.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 639 to 548 and 388 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 5.37% to 12.259.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.42% or 5.10 to $1222.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.21% or 0.14 to hit $67.61 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.18 to trade at $72.72 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7409, while AUD/JPY rose 0.10% to 83.58.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 94.86.