Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 3.34%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 3.34%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aconex Ltd (AX: ACX ), which rose 13.93% or 0.730 points to trade at 5.970 at the close. Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX: SGM ) added 13.39% or 1.460 points to end at 12.360 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX: BSL ) was up 12.97% or 0.960 points to 8.360 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Regis Resources Ltd (AX: RRL ), which lost 9.92% or 0.360 points to trade at 3.270 in late trade. St Barbara Ltd (AX: SBM ) declined 9.15% or 0.270 points to end at 2.680 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX: SAR ) shed 8.75% or 0.123 points to 1.278.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 858 to 299 and 229 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 25.45% to 15.677.

In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.77% or 9.75 to $1283.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.07% or 0.03 to hit $45.24 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.09 to trade at $46.45 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.46% to 0.7671, while AUD/JPY rose 0.42% to 81.03.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.13% at 98.53.