Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.61%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.61% to hit a new all time high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sims Metal Management Ltd (ASX:SGM), which rose 12.42% or 1.37 points to trade at 12.40 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) added 9.24% or 0.22 points to end at 2.60 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 7.13% or 0.39 points to 5.86 in late trade.

Biggest losers included ALS Ltd (ASX:ALQ), which lost 8.36% or 1.25 points to trade at 13.70 in late trade. EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) declined 4.96% or 0.04 points to end at 0.67 and Computershare Ltd. (ASX:CPU) shed 3.91% or 1.06 points to 26.03.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 646 to 447 and 428 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 0.47% to 11.76.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.11% or 2.80 to $2,601.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.69% or 0.48 to hit $70.36 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.64% or 0.47 to trade at $74.12 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.66% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 1.06% to 97.16.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 100.57.