Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy , Resources and Metals & Mining sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.78%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Challenger Ltd (ASX: CGF ), which rose 10.21% or 0.63 points to trade at 6.80 at the close. Meanwhile, Ampol Ltd (ASX: ALD ) added 7.70% or 1.59 points to end at 22.24 and Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX: ILU ) was up 5.60% or 0.20 points to 3.77 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Nanosonics Ltd (ASX: NAN ), which fell 8.04% or 0.39 points to trade at 4.46 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX: APX ) declined 5.88% or 0.05 points to end at 0.80 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP ) was down 3.78% or 0.07 points to 1.66.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 644 to 438 and 424 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 11.69% to 13.19.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.04% or 1.36 to $3,345.04 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.91% or 0.57 to hit $63.04 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.73% or 0.48 to trade at $66.33 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.52% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 90.46.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.27% at 99.42.