Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Healthcare, Consumer Discretionary and A-REITs sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.84% to hit a new 1-month high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Unibail Rodamco Westfield (ASX:URW), which rose 12.04% or 0.59 points to trade at 5.49 at the close. Meanwhile, Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:CTD) added 8.80% or 1.08 points to end at 13.35 and Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (ASX:MMS) was up 8.56% or 0.76 points to 9.64 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF), which fell 11.48% or 0.63 points to trade at 4.86 at the close. Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:GOR) declined 5.87% or 0.100 points to end at 1.605 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) was down 5.67% or 0.810 points to 13.480.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 629 to 613 and 335 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.14% to 21.362.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.20% or 3.35 to $1701.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 1.88% or 0.70 to hit $36.59 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.28% or 0.51 to trade at $39.28 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.29% to 0.6899, while AUD/JPY fell 0.11% to 75.26.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.30% at 97.547.