Australia Stock Market Update

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials, and Resources sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.43%.

Best Performers

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were:
– Appen Ltd (ASX:APX): +6.90% or +0.14 points to trade at 2.17
– Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN): +6.76% or +3.24 points to end at 51.18
– St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM): +4.48% or +0.02 points to 0.35 in late trade.

Worst Performers

The worst performers of the session were:
– Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU): -2.43% or -0.07 points to trade at 2.81
– Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN): -1.64% or -0.06 points to end at 3.59
– Ansell Ltd (ASX:ANN): -2.20% or -0.72 points to 32.04.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 619 to 474 and 453 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.63% to 11.58.

Commodities Update

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.22% or 5.80 to $2,631.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading:
– Crude oil for November rose 0.85% or 0.62 to hit $73.86 a barrel
– December Brent oil contract rose 0.80% or 0.61 to trade at $77.19 a barrel.

Currency Update

• AUD/USD was unchanged at 0.67
• AUD/JPY rose 0.26% to 100.57.
• The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 102.69.