Australia stocks were higher after the close on Thursday, as gains in the Gold, A-REITs and IT sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.56%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:PRU), which rose 8.08% or 0.14 points to trade at 1.80 at the close. Meanwhile, Virgin Money PLC (ASX:VUK) added 7.67% or 0.22 points to end at 3.09 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) was up 7.41% or 0.03 points to 0.44 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which fell 3.56% or 0.10 points to trade at 2.71 at the close. Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (ASX:QBE) declined 2.92% or 0.45 points to end at 14.98 and Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:KGN) was down 2.06% or 0.11 points to 5.22.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 849 to 455 and 390 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.46% to 12.72.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.21% or 4.05 to $1,965.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.17% or 0.13 to hit $75.88 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.30% or 0.24 to trade at $80.35 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.74% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.68% to 94.62.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 100.14.