Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Financials, Consumer Discretionary and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.00%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mercury NZ Ltd (ASX:MCY), which rose 6.13% or 0.35 points to trade at 6.06 at the close. Meanwhile, Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:NEU) added 5.16% or 0.98 points to end at 19.98 and Capstone Copper Corp DRC (ASX:CSC) was up 4.96% or 0.51 points to 10.79 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which fell 6.34% or 0.95 points to trade at 14.04 at the close. Meridian Energy Ltd (ASX:MEZ) declined 3.58% or 0.19 points to end at 5.11 and Summerset Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:SNZ) was down 3.26% or 0.33 points to 9.78.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 607 to 513 and 449 ended unchanged.
Shares in Neuren Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:NEU) rose to 52-week highs; rising 5.16% or 0.98 to 19.98.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 8.58% to 11.19.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.01% or 36.88 to $3,598.62 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 1.08% or 0.69 to hit $63.28 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 1.02% or 0.69 to trade at $66.91 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.31% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 96.69.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 98.18.
