Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.33%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Industrials and Financials sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.33%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Computershare Ltd. (ASX:CPU), which rose 6.10% or 1.68 points to trade at 29.22 at the close. Meanwhile, Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) added 5.52% or 1.20 points to end at 22.93 and Worley Ltd (ASX:WOR) was up 5.42% or 0.78 points to 15.18 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG), which fell 10.07% or 0.08 points to trade at 0.67 at the close. Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) declined 8.39% or 0.26 points to end at 2.84 and Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) was down 6.46% or 0.33 points to 4.78.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 629 to 457 and 415 ended unchanged.

Shares in Computershare Ltd. (ASX:CPU) rose to all time highs; up 6.10% or 1.68 to 29.22.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 35.62% to 7.61 a new 5-year low.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.45% or 12.10 to $2,664.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.57% or 0.41 to hit $72.10 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.65% or 0.49 to trade at $75.41 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.80% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.51% to 102.11.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 104.88.