Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Financials and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.75%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which rose 4.81% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.180 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 4.68% or 0.130 points to end at 2.910 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) was up 4.46% or 0.050 points to 1.170 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Dexus Property Group (AX:DXS), which fell 4.83% or 0.510 points to trade at 10.050 at the close. Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) declined 4.16% or 0.335 points to end at 7.715 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was down 3.41% or 0.058 points to 1.627.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 638 to 512 and 402 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.68% to 13.451.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.78% or 9.75 to $1255.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.21% or 0.09 to hit $42.44 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.22% or 0.10 to trade at $44.72 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.07% to 0.7558, while AUD/JPY fell 0.27% to 83.88.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 97.12.