Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Healthcare and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.83%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which rose 9.74% or 1.14 points to trade at 12.84 at the close. Meanwhile, Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) added 5.76% or 0.65 points to end at 11.93 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was up 5.73% or 0.130 points to 2.400 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS), which fell 10.80% or 0.135 points to trade at 1.115 at the close. Blackmores Ltd (ASX:BKL) declined 4.32% or 3.64 points to end at 80.60 and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) was down 4.15% or 0.230 points to 5.310.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 710 to 606 and 411 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.64% to 11.914.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.02% or 0.35 to $1792.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.60% or 0.37 to hit $60.98 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.55% or 0.36 to trade at $64.96 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.05% to 0.7754, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 83.64.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 91.013.