Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Financials and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.30%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bingo Industries Ltd (AX:BIN), which rose 15.17% or 0.220 points to trade at 1.670 at the close. Meanwhile, Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG) added 9.00% or 0.190 points to end at 2.300 and Ramsay Health Care Ltd (AX:RHC) was up 5.90% or 3.610 points to 64.780 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Inghams Group Ltd (AX:ING), which fell 8.18% or 0.36 points to trade at 4.04 at the close. National Storage REIT (AX:NSR) declined 6.13% or 0.115 points to end at 1.760 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) was down 5.48% or 0.350 points to 6.040.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 602 to 551 and 349 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.72% to 11.914.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.11% or 1.45 to $1319.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.25% or 0.14 to hit $56.80 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.41% or 0.27 to trade at $66.31 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.7141, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 79.14.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 95.995.