Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Discretionary and Gold sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.23%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were News Corp B DRC (ASX:NWS), which rose 5.77% or 3.07 points to trade at 56.28 at the close. Meanwhile, Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) added 4.38% or 0.04 points to end at 0.84 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was up 3.72% or 0.09 points to 2.51 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which fell 3.98% or 0.09 points to trade at 2.17 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) declined 4.95% or 0.08 points to end at 1.44 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) was down 3.31% or 0.10 points to 2.92.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 658 to 444 and 450 ended unchanged.
Shares in News Corp B DRC (ASX:NWS) rose to all time highs; up 5.77% or 3.07 to 56.28.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.21% to 11.03.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.18% or 5.08 to $2,887.92 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.27% or 0.19 to hit $71.22 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.17% or 0.13 to trade at $74.74 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.30% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY fell 0.56% to 95.39.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 107.58.