Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the IT , A-REITs and Consumer Staples sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24% to hit a new 1-month high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX: PTM ), which rose 12.28% or 0.07 points to trade at 0.64 at the close. Meanwhile, Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX: WTC ) added 6.61% or 5.85 points to end at 94.37 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: MSB ) was up 4.74% or 0.09 points to 1.88 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX: WGX ), which fell 6.73% or 0.20 points to trade at 2.77 at the close. Austal Ltd (ASX: ASB ) declined 3.77% or 0.20 points to end at 5.11 and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC ) was down 3.38% or 0.29 points to 8.29.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 546 to 540 and 449 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.31% to 11.81.

Gold Futures for June delivery was down 2.19% or 72.55 to $3,246.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.14% or 0.08 to hit $58.13 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.07% or 0.04 to trade at $61.02 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.09% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY rose 0.81% to 92.34.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.48% at 99.75.