Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.79%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.79%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA), which rose 14.83% or 0.43 points to trade at 3.33 at the close. Meanwhile, Sonic Healthcare Ltd (ASX:SHL) added 14.25% or 4.14 points to end at 33.20 and Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:CTD) was up 9.97% or 1.57 points to 17.32 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were AMP Ltd (ASX:AMP), which fell 13.36% or 0.18 points to trade at 1.13 at the close. Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) declined 9.54% or 0.12 points to end at 1.09 and NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX:NWH) was down 5.41% or 0.16 points to 2.80.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 756 to 531 and 396 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.44% to 12.66.

Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.18% or 3.35 to $1,848.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.94% or 0.74 to hit $79.33 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.69% or 0.59 to trade at $85.97 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.28% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY rose 0.03% to 92.61.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 103.61.