Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.86%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.86%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were AMP Ltd (ASX:AMP ), which rose 17.34% or 0.24 points to trade at 1.59 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM ) added 12.18% or 0.05 points to end at 0.44 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX ) was up 10.00% or 0.27 points to 2.97 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX ), which fell 6.88% or 0.15 points to trade at 2.03 at the close. Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS ) declined 5.03% or 0.09 points to end at 1.70 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML ) was down 4.26% or 0.03 points to 0.62.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 626 to 418 and 405 ended unchanged.

Shares in AMP Ltd (ASX:AMP ) rose to 3-years highs; gaining 17.34% or 0.24 to 1.59. Shares in St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM ) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 12.18% or 0.05 to 0.44.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.38% to 12.19.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.26% or 7.00 to $2,698.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.44% or 0.31 to hit $70.70 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.36% or 0.27 to trade at $74.49 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.37% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.24% to 100.02.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 103.39.

Source: Investing.com