Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.77% 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 added 1.77%.

The best performers of the session on the were Megaport Ltd (ASX:), which rose 12.57% or 0.93 points to trade at 8.33 at the close. Meanwhile, Zip Co Ltd (ASX:) added 8.98% or 0.08 points to end at 0.91 and Nufarm Ltd (ASX:) was up 7.79% or 0.38 points to 5.26 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:), which fell 5.50% or 1.87 points to trade at 32.10 at the close. Alumina Ltd (ASX:) declined 2.47% or 0.04 points to end at 1.38 and Medibank Private Ltd (ASX:) was down 1.69% or 0.06 points to 3.50.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 873 to 489 and 382 ended unchanged.

Shares in Alumina Ltd (ASX:) fell to 52-week lows; losing 2.47% or 0.04 to 1.38.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 8.95% to 15.05.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.12% or 2.05 to $1,729.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.65% or 0.53 to hit $82.47 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.51% or 0.45 to trade at $88.45 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.47% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.44% to 96.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 109.74.