Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Healthcare and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.46%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 15.34% or 0.240 points to trade at 1.805 at the close. Meanwhile, APN News & Media Ltd (AX:APN) added 10.99% or 0.050 points to end at 0.505 and Syrah Res F (AX:SYR) was up 9.15% or 0.300 points to 3.580 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH), which fell 17.21% or 0.185 points to trade at 0.890 at the close. ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ) declined 4.89% or 0.180 points to end at 3.500 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) was down 4.40% or 0.020 points to 0.435.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 597 to 392 and 124 ended unchanged.
Shares in ALS Ltd (AX:ALQ) fell to 5-year lows; falling 4.89% or 0.180 to 3.500.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 11.94% to 17.602.
Gold for February delivery was down 0.91% or 9.80 to $1067.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.21% or 0.07 to hit $35.45 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.65% or 0.24 to trade at $37.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.62% to 0.7186, while AUD/JPY fell 0.57% to 87.89.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.32% at 98.72.