Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.02%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.02%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL), which rose 36.59% or 0.30 points to trade at 1.12 at the close. Meanwhile, Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) added 5.16% or 3.72 points to end at 75.78 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) was up 4.14% or 0.04 points to 0.88 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST), which fell 6.59% or 0.83 points to trade at 11.76 at the close. Codan Ltd (ASX:CDA) declined 3.11% or 0.25 points to end at 7.78 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was down 2.55% or 0.06 points to 2.29.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 620 to 606 and 455 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.87% to 10.88.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.03% or 0.65 to $1,981.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to hit $75.29 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.06% or 0.05 to trade at $79.41 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.68% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.64% to 95.20.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 100.01.