CANBERRA: Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT, Telecoms Services and Healthcare sectors led shares higher. At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.71%. The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 13.61% or 0.460 points to trade at 3.840 at the close. Meanwhile, Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA) added 9.37% or 0.310 points to end at 3.620 and Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT) was up 8.00% or 0.340 points to 4.590 in late trade. The worst performers of the session were Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (AX:HVN), which fell 7.03% or 0.310 points to trade at 4.100 at the close. Reliance Worldwide Corporation (Aust) Pty Ltd (AX:RWC) declined 4.06% or 0.155 points to end at 3.665 and Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (AX:SKC) was down 3.37% or 0.120 points to 3.440.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 709 to 466 and 340 ended unchanged. The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.31% to 12.489. Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.49% or 6.40 to $1307.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.11% or 0.05 to hit $45.91 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.04 to trade at $50.69 a barrel. AUD/USD was down 0.09% to 0.7896, while AUD/JPY rose 0.20% to 87.33. The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 92.97.