Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Industrials, Healthcare and Financials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.16%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which rose 6.27% or 0.160 points to trade at 2.710 at the close. Meanwhile, Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) added 5.11% or 0.140 points to end at 2.880 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) was up 5.08% or 0.060 points to 1.240 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Santos Ltd (AX:STO), which fell 5.77% or 0.210 points to trade at 3.430 at the close. Origin Energy Ltd (AX:ORG) declined 3.85% or 0.290 points to end at 7.240 and Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) was down 3.13% or 0.058 points to 1.782.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 566 to 558 and 371 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.41% to 11.682.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.34% or 4.24 to $1268.44 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.46% or 0.23 to hit $49.39 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.36% or 0.19 to trade at $52.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7485, while AUD/JPY rose 0.31% to 83.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 98.84.