Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.44% 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 1.44%.

The best performers of the session on the were Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:), which rose 14.61% or 3.02 points to trade at 23.69 at the close. Meanwhile, Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:) added 6.04% or 0.05 points to end at 0.79 and Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:) was up 5.43% or 0.04 points to 0.68 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Iress Ltd (ASX:), which fell 17.30% or 1.82 points to trade at 8.70 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:) declined 4.82% or 0.04 points to end at 0.79 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:) was down 4.17% or 0.03 points to 0.57.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 893 to 430 and 383 ended unchanged.

Shares in Iress Ltd (ASX:) fell to 5-year lows; losing 17.30% or 1.82 to 8.70. Shares in Nuix Ltd (ASX:) fell to all time lows; falling 4.17% or 0.03 to 0.57.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.64% to 18.93.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.16% or 19.45 to $1,650.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 2.05% or 1.68 to hit $80.47 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 1.99% or 1.75 to trade at $86.30 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 1.20% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY fell 0.85% to 93.22.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.98% at 113.61.