Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.19%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.19%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pendal Group Ltd (ASX:PDL), which rose 10.54% or 0.47 points to trade at 4.93 at the close. Meanwhile, Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB) added 10.14% or 0.57 points to end at 6.19 and Fisher&Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH) was up 3.89% or 0.69 points to 18.41 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Perpetual Ltd (ASX:PPT), which fell 12.63% or 3.99 points to trade at 27.59 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) declined 6.31% or 0.55 points to end at 8.16 and South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) was down 5.21% or 0.22 points to 4.00.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 680 to 630 and 367 ended unchanged.

Shares in Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 10.14% or 0.57 to 6.19.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.74% to 15.27.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.28% or 4.95 to $1,770.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.72% or 0.62 to hit $84.97 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.41% or 0.38 to trade at $92.48 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.14% to 93.93.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 106.21.