Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Financials and A-REITs sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.59%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Greencross Ltd (ASX:GXL), which rose 6.54% or 0.350 points to trade at 5.700 at the close. Meanwhile, Karoon Gas Australia Ltd (ASX:KAR) added 6.52% or 0.150 points to end at 2.450 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) was up 5.56% or 0.015 points to 0.285 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Primary Health Care Ltd (ASX:PRY), which fell 8.09% or 0.420 points to trade at 4.770 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) declined 6.43% or 0.080 points to end at 1.165 and Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX:PDN) was down 6.00% or 0.015 points to 0.235.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 511 to 451 and 169 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.80% to 15.495.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.11% or 1.30 to $1146.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.61% or 0.32 to hit $51.73 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.36% or 0.20 to trade at $57.33 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7380, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 91.40.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.12% at 97.40.