Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.53%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG), which rose 50.77% or 0.165 points to trade at 0.490 at the close. Meanwhile, Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) added 25.60% or 0.750 points to end at 3.680 and Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN) was up 8.33% or 0.015 points to 0.195 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Paladin Energy Ltd (ASX:PDN), which fell 3.77% or 0.010 points to trade at 0.255 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) declined 3.60% or 0.080 points to end at 2.140 and Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN) was down 3.48% or 0.050 points to 1.385.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 631 to 316 and 173 ended unchanged.
Shares in Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN) fell to 5-year lows; losing 3.48% or 0.050 to 1.385.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 5.67% to 17.448.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.42% or 4.90 to $1164.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.31% or 0.17 to hit $57.13 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.58% or 0.36 to trade at $62.37 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.7635, while AUD/JPY rose 0.06% to 94.21.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.12% at 96.36.