Australian shares rise at close of trade; The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.09% by Investing.com

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the , and sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, it added 0.09%.

The best performers of the session on the were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: ), which rose 8.84% or 0.11 points to trade at 1.36 at the close. Meanwhile, Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX: ) added 3.19% or 0.09 points to end at 2.91 and Monadelphus Group Ltd (ASX: ) was up 3.05% or 0.39 points to trade at 13.18 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX: ) which was down 7.87% or 0.17 points to trade at 1.99 at the close. EML Payments Ltd (ASX: ) declined 4.76% or 0.03 points to end at 0.60 and ARB Corporation Ltd (ASX: ) declined 4.74% or 2.21 points to 44. 40.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 592 to 513, with 432 ending unchanged.

Shares in Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 8.84% or 0.11 to 1.36. Shares in EML Payments Ltd (ASX:) fell to 52-week lows; down 4.76% or 0.03 to 0.60.

which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, fell 1.93% to 11.87.

Gold futures for December delivery rose 0.23%, or 6.15, to $2,675.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodity trading, crude for November delivery rose 1.50%, or 1.05, to $71.15 a barrel, while the December Brent crude contract rose 1.33% or 0.98, to $74.88 per barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.28% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY fell 0.19% to 100.66.

US dollar index futures rose 0.21% to 101.64.