Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, IT and A-REITs sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.52%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which rose 11.01% or 0.093 points to trade at 0.932 at the close. Meanwhile, Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) added 4.87% or 0.450 points to end at 9.690 and Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX:CGC) was up 4.14% or 0.285 points to 7.175 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which fell 7.44% or 0.390 points to trade at 4.850 at the close. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN) declined 4.03% or 0.150 points to end at 3.570 and Navitas Ltd (AX:NVT) was down 3.75% or 0.185 points to 4.745.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 630 to 568 and 369 ended unchanged.
Shares in Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN) fell to 3-years lows; losing 4.03% or 0.150 to 3.570.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.68% to 15.460.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.59% or 7.90 to $1332.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.46% or 0.29 to hit $63.66 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.51% or 0.35 to trade at $68.37 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.32% to 0.7690, while AUD/JPY fell 0.22% to 82.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 89.88.