Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.53%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT , Healthcare and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.53%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Eclipx Group Ltd (AX: ECX ), which rose 16.09% or 0.370 points to trade at 2.670 at the close. Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (AX: CTD ) added 14.75% or 2.950 points to end at 22.950 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX: APT ) was up 11.07% or 1.440 points to 14.450 in late trade.

Biggest losers included James Hardie Industries PLC (AX: JHX ), which lost 14.65% or 2.900 points to trade at 16.900 in late trade. Domino'S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (AX: DMP ) declined 10.70% or 5.960 points to end at 49.720 and APA Group (AX: APA ) shed 8.83% or 0.840 points to 8.670.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 646 to 470 and 370 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 5.84% to 13.886 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.27% or 3.30 to $1225.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.10% or 0.06 to hit $61.73 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.06% or 0.04 to trade at $72.03 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7287, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 82.81.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 95.99.