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 IT, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.

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

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 17.38% or 0.26 points to trade at 1.79 at the close. Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) added 10.17% or 0.60 points to end at 6.50 and Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF) was up 6.01% or 0.22 points to 3.88 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG), which lost 6.40% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.40 in late trade. Domino'S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX:DMP) declined 5.65% or 1.71 points to end at 28.54 and Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:RMS) shed 4.93% or 0.10 points to 1.93.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 581 to 462 and 416 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 2.86% to 10.70.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.86% or 22.35 to $2,564.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.56% or 0.38 to hit $68.05 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.50% or 0.36 to trade at $71.92 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.32% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.01% to 100.82.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.25% at 106.64.