Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.75%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the Resources , Energy and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.75%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mantra Group Ltd (AX: MTR ), which rose 4.32% or 0.130 points to trade at 3.140 at the close. Western Areas Ltd (AX: WSA ) added 4.17% or 0.100 points to end at 2.500 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX: WHC ) was up 3.81% or 0.045 points to 1.225 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Cimic Group Ltd (AX: CIM ), which lost 15.95% or 5.780 points to trade at 30.460 in late trade. Iluka Resources Ltd (AX: ILU ) declined 6.73% or 0.460 points to end at 6.380 and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (AX: TAH ) shed 5.88% or 0.270 points to 4.320.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 682 to 394 and 272 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 4.83% to 18.349.

In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.14% or 1.90 to $1369.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.55% or 0.26 to hit $47.69 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.51% or 0.25 to trade at $49.05 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.01% to 0.7520, while AUD/JPY fell 0.60% to 75.75.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 96.07.