Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.50%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the A-REITs, Gold and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.50% to hit a new all time high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 9.39% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.99 at the close. Meanwhile, Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SGR) added 7.29% or 0.04 points to end at 0.52 and Ramsay Health Care Ltd (ASX:RHC) was up 7.05% or 3.61 points to 54.80 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Resmed Inc DRC (ASX:RMD), which fell 4.08% or 1.14 points to trade at 26.79 at the close. Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) declined 3.39% or 0.04 points to end at 1.14 and Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (ASX:NEC) was down 3.19% or 0.06 points to 1.74.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 600 to 518 and 364 ended unchanged.

Shares in Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS) fell to 5-year lows; falling 3.39% or 0.04 to 1.14.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.16% to 10.95.

Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.01% or 0.25 to $2,042.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.05% or 0.04 to hit $78.50 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.07% or 0.06 to trade at $82.09 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.30% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.18% to 97.70.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 103.84.