Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Discretionary and Financials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.01%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX:TWE), which rose 17.46% or 1.770 points to trade at 11.910 at the close. Meanwhile, IPH Ltd (ASX:IPH) added 9.80% or 0.60 points to end at 6.72 and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH) was up 5.67% or 0.250 points to 4.660 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX:NWH), which fell 17.14% or 0.48 points to trade at 2.32 at the close. United Malt Group Ltd (ASX:UMG) declined 6.60% or 0.26 points to end at 3.68 and Bendigo And Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX:BEN) was down 6.50% or 0.72 points to 10.35.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 799 to 585 and 324 ended unchanged.
Shares in United Malt Group Ltd (ASX:UMG) fell to all time lows; falling 6.60% or 0.26 to 3.68.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 5.77% to 14.376.
Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.52% or 9.15 to $1781.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.77% or 0.47 to hit $61.61 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.90% or 0.58 to trade at $64.92 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7757, while AUD/JPY rose 0.07% to 82.08.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 90.900.