Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Resources, Metals & Mining and Energy sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.55%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Cimic Group Ltd (AX:CIM), which rose 5.72% or 2.300 points to trade at 42.480 at the close. Meanwhile, Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) added 5.49% or 0.045 points to end at 0.865 and A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) was up 4.63% or 0.460 points to 10.400 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which fell 6.40% or 0.370 points to trade at 5.410 at the close. Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG) declined 4.93% or 0.035 points to end at 0.675 and Carsales.Com Ltd (AX:CAR) was down 2.69% or 0.395 points to 14.285.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 631 to 574 and 416 ended unchanged.
Shares in Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG) fell to all time lows; losing 4.93% or 0.035 to 0.675.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.09% to 10.530.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.02% or 0.30 to $1301.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.60% or 0.39 to hit $65.12 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.69% or 0.52 to trade at $75.88 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.16% to 0.7657, while AUD/JPY fell 0.34% to 84.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.16% at 93.46.