Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Resources, Energy and Materials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.75%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR), which rose 4.32% or 0.130 points to trade at 3.140 at the close. Meanwhile, Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) added 4.17% or 0.100 points to end at 2.500 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) was up 3.81% or 0.045 points to 1.225 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Cimic Group Ltd (AX:CIM), which fell 15.95% or 5.780 points to trade at 30.460 at the close. Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) declined 6.73% or 0.460 points to end at 6.380 and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (AX:TAH) was down 5.88% or 0.270 points to 4.320.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 682 to 393 and 273 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.83% to 18.349.
Gold for August delivery was up 0.21% or 2.90 to $1370.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.55% or 0.26 to hit $47.69 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.51% or 0.25 to trade at $49.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7521, while AUD/JPY fell 0.56% to 75.78.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.05% at 96.08.