Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.95%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.95%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SKC), which rose 11.55% or 0.14 points to trade at 1.40 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 9.38% or 0.03 points to end at 0.35 and Brickworks Ltd (ASX:BKW) was up 7.56% or 2.01 points to 28.61 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which lost 4.00% or 0.12 points to trade at 2.88 in late trade. Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:WDS) declined 2.96% or 0.75 points to end at 24.63 and Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU) shed 2.92% or 0.08 points to 2.66.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 735 to 400 and 418 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 2.70% to 11.62.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.04% or 0.95 to $2,683.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 2.58% or 1.80 to hit $67.89 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 2.48% or 1.81 to trade at $71.09 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.58% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY rose 0.50% to 99.28.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 100.50.