Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Healthcare and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.20% to hit a new all time high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Service Stream Ltd (ASX:SSM), which rose 5.04% or 0.120 points to trade at 2.500 at the close. Meanwhile, Telstra Corporation Ltd. (ASX:TLS) added 4.04% or 0.150 points to end at 3.860 and Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF) was up 3.31% or 0.160 points to 5.000 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were G.U.D. Holdings Ltd (ASX:GUD), which fell 5.04% or 0.590 points to trade at 11.110 at the close. Virgin Money UK PLC (ASX:VUK) declined 3.58% or 0.100 points to end at 2.690 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (ASX:GXY) was down 3.57% or 0.035 points to 0.945.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 603 to 502 and 352 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.45% to 11.270.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.14% or 2.05 to $1462.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.55% or 0.32 to hit $57.79 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.44% or 0.28 to trade at $62.73 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.6766, while AUD/JPY fell 0.20% to 74.08.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 98.265.