Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Healthcare and Utilities sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.10%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Link Administration Holdings Ltd (ASX:LNK), which rose 9.37% or 0.460 points to trade at 5.370 at the close. Meanwhile, Ausdrill Ltd (ASX:ASL) added 7.74% or 0.135 points to end at 1.880 and G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) was up 5.83% or 0.140 points to 2.540 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which fell 11.33% or 3.100 points to trade at 24.270 at the close. Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT) declined 6.71% or 0.440 points to end at 6.120 and Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) was down 5.96% or 3.110 points to 49.050.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 586 to 567 and 376 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.66% to 14.783.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.47% or 7.35 to $1556.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.27% or 0.15 to hit $55.63 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.45% or 0.27 to trade at $59.66 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.6719, while AUD/JPY fell 0.39% to 71.16.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 98.125.
