Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.10%

Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, IT and Financials sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.10%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 12.09% or 0.06 points to trade at 0.51 at the close. Meanwhile, IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) added 5.45% or 0.72 points to end at 13.92 and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) was up 5.21% or 0.20 points to 4.04 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which fell 9.38% or 0.63 points to trade at 6.09 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) declined 8.82% or 0.03 points to end at 0.31 and Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB) was down 6.06% or 0.45 points to 6.98.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 679 to 593 and 422 ended unchanged.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 679 to 593 and 422 ended unchanged.

Shares in Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) fell to 5-year lows; losing 8.82% or 0.03 to 0.31.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.27% to 10.98.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.06% or 1.15 to $1,971.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.21% or 0.17 to hit $81.80 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.12% or 0.10 to trade at $85.34 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.07% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.15% to 94.55.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 103.24.