Australia stocks higher at close of trade

Australia stocks higher at close of trade

Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Energy, Resources and Metals & Mining sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.93% to hit a new 3-months high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were WorleyParsons Ltd, which rose 9.78% or 0.630 points to trade at 7.070 at the close. Meanwhile, Santos Ltd added 9.26% or 0.390 points to end at 4.600 and Origin Energy Ltd was up 8.51% or 0.434 points to 5.534 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Mantra Group Ltd, which fell 8.29% or 0.340 points to trade at 3.760 at the close. St Barbara Ltd declined 3.83% or 0.090 points to end at 2.260 and Mirvac Group was down 3.80% or 0.075 points to 1.900.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 636 to 413 and 303 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.96% to 16.039.

Gold for June delivery was up 0.07% or 0.90 to $1255.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.61% or 0.27 to hit $44.45 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.30 to trade at $46.10 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.23% to 0.7813, while AUD/JPY rose 0.07% to 85.68.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 94.50.