Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Western Areas Ltd (ASX:WSA), which rose 9.16% or 0.230 points to trade at 2.740 at the close. Meanwhile, Dicksmith Fpo (ASX:DSH) added 8.52% or 0.115 points to end at 1.465 and Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) was up 8.48% or 0.430 points to 5.500 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Blackmores Ltd (ASX:BKL), which fell 6.29% or 9.520 points to trade at 141.870 at the close. AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) declined 5.95% or 0.050 points to end at 0.790 and Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) was down 4.38% or 0.060 points to 1.310.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 562 to 417 and 147 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.18% to 21.891 a new 1-month low.
Gold for December delivery was down 0.53% or 6.10 to $1142.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.48% or 0.23 to hit $48.04 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.34 to trade at $51.67 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.53% to 0.7170, while AUD/JPY fell 0.72% to 85.86.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.15% at 95.51.