Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT, Gold and Healthcare sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.02%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which rose 8.58% or 0.260 points to trade at 3.290 at the close. Meanwhile, Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) added 7.26% or 0.135 points to end at 1.995 and Infigen Energy (AX:IFN) was up 4.79% or 0.035 points to 0.765 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which fell 3.79% or 0.180 points to trade at 4.570 at the close. Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (AX:CCL) declined 3.58% or 0.330 points to end at 8.890 and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN) was down 2.99% or 0.120 points to 3.890.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 597 to 480 and 359 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.18% to 13.395.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.26% or 3.21 to $1224.91 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.89% or 0.40 to hit $45.53 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.90% or 0.43 to trade at $48.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.09% to 0.7596, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 85.91.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 96.05.