Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, Consumer Staples and Telecoms Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.25% to hit a new all time high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (ASX:SXL), which rose 13.91% or 0.105 points to trade at 0.860 at the close. Meanwhile, Perpetual Ltd (ASX:PPT) added 11.15% or 4.74 points to end at 47.27 and Smartgroup Corporation Ltd (ASX:SIQ) was up 9.52% or 0.64 points to 7.36 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC), which fell 11.78% or 2.52 points to trade at 18.88 at the close. Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX:DHG) declined 6.33% or 0.24 points to end at 3.55 and Iress Ltd (ASX:IRE) was down 5.74% or 0.78 points to 12.80.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 633 to 560 and 328 ended unchanged.
Shares in Perpetual Ltd (ASX:PPT) rose to 52-week highs; rising 11.15% or 4.74 to 47.27.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.22% to 12.394.
Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.11% or 1.75 to $1610.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.64% or 0.34 to hit $53.83 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.44% or 0.26 to trade at $59.38 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.41% to 0.6647, while AUD/JPY fell 0.29% to 74.11.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 99.642.
