Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Staples and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.17%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Incitec Pivot Ltd (AX:IPL), which rose 5.00% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.570 at the close. Meanwhile, BT Investment Management Ltd (AX:BTT) added 4.99% or 0.535 points to end at 11.265 and Duluxgroup Ltd (AX:DLX) was up 4.63% or 0.310 points to 7.010 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which fell 2.68% or 0.055 points to trade at 1.995 at the close. Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) declined 2.34% or 0.048 points to end at 1.982 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) was down 1.40% or 0.013 points to 0.882.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 692 to 390 and 371 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.18% to 13.869.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.28% or 3.39 to $1222.49 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.26% or 0.12 to hit $45.37 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.12 to trade at $47.62 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.33% to 0.7705, while AUD/JPY rose 0.24% to 87.09.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.22% at 95.34.