Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.39%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.39% to hit a new all time high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which rose 17.46% or 0.11 points to trade at 0.74 at the close. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 9.68% or 0.03 points to end at 0.34 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was up 8.33% or 0.10 points to 1.27 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which fell 5.41% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.18 at the close. Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX:PTM) declined 4.17% or 0.05 points to end at 1.15 and Codan Ltd (ASX:CDA) was down 3.63% or 0.39 points to 10.36.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 650 to 526 and 329 ended unchanged.

Shares in Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) rose to 52-week highs; rising 8.33% or 0.10 to 1.27.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was unchanged 0.04% to 10.92.

Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.30% or 6.50 to $2,164.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.09% or 0.07 to hit $79.06 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.12% or 0.10 to trade at $82.86 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.29% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.31% to 97.77.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 103.21.