Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Energy and Resources sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.95%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were BC Iron Ltd (ASX:BCI), which rose 20.24% or 0.085 points to trade at 0.505 at the close. Meanwhile, Sirius Resources NL (ASX:SIR) added 13.62% or 0.320 points to end at 2.670 and Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX:LYC) was up 12.24% or 0.006 points to 0.055 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT), which fell 9.05% or 3.17 points to trade at 31.87 at the close. Covermore Fpo (ASX:CVO) declined 6.67% or 0.13 points to end at 1.82 and Transpacific Industries Group Ltd (ASX:TPI) was down 4.22% or 0.035 points to 0.795.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 346 to 207 and 34 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.07% to 16.503.
Gold for February delivery was up 0.42% or 5.00 to $1199.50 a troy ounce.
Elsewhere in commodities trading, crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.10% or 0.06 to hit $56.73 a barrel, while the February brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.12 to trade at $61.30 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.76% to 0.8188, while AUD/JPY rose 0.60% to 96.97.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 89.26.