Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT, Gold and Healthcare sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.70%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX:SUL), which rose 7.75% or 0.89 points to trade at 12.38 at the close. Meanwhile, Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) added 7.41% or 0.060 points to end at 0.870 and Collins Foods Ltd (ASX:CKF) was up 6.93% or 0.83 points to 12.81 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which fell 6.96% or 0.250 points to trade at 3.340 at the close. Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SGR) declined 4.15% or 0.19 points to end at 4.39 and Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) was down 2.15% or 0.160 points to 7.270.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 803 to 513 and 422 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 5.73% to 14.581.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.30% or 5.35 to $1767.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.92% or 1.49 to hit $75.94 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 1.21% or 0.98 to trade at $80.10 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.33% to 0.7296, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 81.18.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 94.157.