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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 4.54%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP ), which rose 20.66% or 0.25 points to trade at 1.46 at the close. Meanwhile, Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX: MIN ) added 18.13% or 2.61 points to end at 17.01 and Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX: NWL ) was up 16.59% or 3.75 points to 26.36 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX: SKC ), which fell 1.87% or 0.02 points to trade at 1.05 at the close. Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX: PBH ) unchanged 0.24% or 0.00 points to end at 1.03 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX: OBL ) was up 0.77% or 0.01 points to 1.32.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 1008 to 184 and 367 ended unchanged.

Shares in Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX: SKC ) fell to all time lows; down 1.87% or 0.02 to 1.05.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 17.39% to 18.18.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 1.83% or 56.30 to $3,135.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.24% or 0.15 to hit $62.20 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.38% or 0.25 to trade at $65.23 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.55% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 90.85.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 102.42.