Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.14% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Sydney, the rose 0.14% to hit a new 3-months high.

The best performers of the session on the were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:), which rose 9.09% or 0.06 points to trade at 0.66 at the close. Meanwhile, Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:) added 7.89% or 0.06 points to end at 0.82 and Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:) was up 7.87% or 0.27 points to 3.70 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:), which fell 6.65% or 0.64 points to trade at 8.98 at the close. Nuix Ltd (ASX:) declined 4.05% or 0.03 points to end at 0.71 and NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.03% or 0.08 points to 2.56.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 633 to 629 and 410 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.83% to 12.29 a new 6-months low.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.59% or 10.35 to $1,755.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.31% or 0.24 to hit $77.70 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.37% or 0.32 to trade at $85.09 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.42% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 93.75.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 105.68.