Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Financials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.28%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which rose 5.69% or 0.080 points to trade at 1.485 at the close. Meanwhile, OZ Minerals Ltd (AX:OZL) added 4.93% or 0.280 points to end at 5.960 and Covermore Fpo (AX:CVO) was up 4.29% or 0.058 points to 1.397 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG), which fell 5.30% or 0.240 points to trade at 4.290 at the close. Flight Centre Ltd (AX:FLT) declined 4.29% or 1.560 points to end at 34.810 and APA Group (AX:APA) was down 4.23% or 0.370 points to 8.380.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 570 to 489 and 331 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.78% to 16.267.
Gold for December delivery was down 0.09% or 1.15 to $1324.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.32% or 0.14 to hit $43.72 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.63% or 0.29 to trade at $46.14 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.03% to 0.7469, while AUD/JPY fell 0.13% to 76.42.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.01% at 95.34.