Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Australian Real Estate Investment Trust and Financials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.86%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:SIP), which rose 9.30% or 0.080 points to trade at 0.940 at the close. Meanwhile, Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) added 6.70% or 0.125 points to end at 1.990 and Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) was up 6.49% or 0.810 points to 13.300 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX:MYR), which fell 10.13% or 0.155 points to trade at 1.375 at the close. Horizon Oil Ltd (ASX:HZN) declined 8.00% or 0.010 points to end at 0.115 and Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO) was down 6.67% or 0.010 points to 0.140.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 390 to 198 and 44 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.48% to 13.243 a new 1-month low.
Gold for April delivery was up 1.63% or 18.80 to $1170.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude Oil for delivery in May fell 1.93% or 0.90 to hit $45.75 a barrel, while the May Brent Oil contract fell 2.28% or 1.29 to trade at $55.32 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.53% to 0.7730, while AUD/JPY fell 0.21% to 93.16.
The US Dollar Index was up 1.20% at 98.55.