Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.40%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT, Real Estate Investment and Gold sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.40%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 14.50% or 0.14 points to trade at 1.15 at the close. Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT) added 8.21% or 1.32 points to end at 17.39 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) was up 7.69% or 0.08 points to 1.12 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF), which lost 11.00% or 0.77 points to trade at 6.23 in late trade. Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:WDS) declined 6.78% or 1.82 points to end at 25.01 and Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) shed 5.70% or 1.95 points to 32.26.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 579 to 501 and 444 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 7.31% to 12.62.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.42% or 10.60 to $2,536.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.27% or 0.19 to hit $69.39 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.22% or 0.16 to trade at $72.86 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.01% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.49% to 96.19.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 101.17.