Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.12%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.12%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB), which rose 9.05% or 0.72 points to trade at 8.68 at the close. Meanwhile, Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) added 8.00% or 0.11 points to end at 1.49 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) was up 7.43% or 0.03 points to 0.40 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which fell 8.96% or 0.06 points to trade at 0.61 at the close. IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) declined 3.83% or 0.29 points to end at 7.29 and Spark New Zealand Ltd (ASX:SPK) was down 3.46% or 0.16 points to 4.47.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 781 to 446 and 335 ended unchanged.

Shares in Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB) rose to 3-years highs; rising 9.05% or 0.72 to 8.68. Shares in Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) rose to 52-week highs; up 8.00% or 0.11 to 1.49.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 9.58% to 11.37.

Gold Futures for April delivery was up 2.02% or 43.70 to $2,204.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.63% or 0.51 to hit $81.78 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.67% or 0.58 to trade at $86.53 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.57% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.26% to 99.89.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 102.93.