Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the A-REITs, IT and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.65% to hit a new 1-month high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL), which rose 12.30% or 5.01 points to trade at 45.75 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 8.20% or 0.05 points to end at 0.66 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) was up 6.59% or 0.03 points to 0.49 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL), which fell 4.41% or 0.75 points to trade at 16.25 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) declined 2.38% or 0.03 points to end at 1.02 and Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) was down 2.29% or 0.04 points to 1.71.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 680 to 539 and 454 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.84% to 11.15.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.11% or 2.60 to $2,392.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.38% or 0.30 to hit $78.93 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.35% or 0.29 to trade at $83.04 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.25% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.70% to 102.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 104.18.