Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.96%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 15.70% or 0.380 points to trade at 2.800 at the close. Meanwhile, Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) added 12.73% or 0.140 points to end at 1.240 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) was up 9.05% or 0.220 points to 2.650 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which fell 5.37% or 0.290 points to trade at 5.110 at the close. Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH) declined 5.17% or 0.015 points to end at 0.275 and Resmed Inc (AX:RMD) was down 3.75% or 0.290 points to 7.450.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 530 to 375 and 316 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.70% to 15.324 a new 6-months low.
Gold for April delivery was up 2.42% or 29.70 to $1259.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.43% or 0.55 to hit $39.01 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.60% or 0.24 to trade at $40.57 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.79% to 0.7611, while AUD/JPY rose 0.28% to 85.24.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.11% at 95.59.