Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Healthcare and A-REITs sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.41%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 6.51% or 0.07 points to trade at 1.15 at the close. Meanwhile, Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX:TWE) added 5.27% or 0.60 points to end at 11.99 and Seek Ltd (ASX:SEK) was up 5.25% or 1.19 points to 23.87 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 4.89% or 0.06 points to trade at 1.07 at the close. Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) declined 4.85% or 6.39 points to end at 125.41 and Alumina Ltd (ASX:AWC) was down 4.55% or 0.09 points to 1.78.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 703 to 494 and 449 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.22% to 10.69 a new 1-month low.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.15% or 3.60 to $2,351.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.11% or 0.08 to hit $73.17 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $77.48 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.62% to 103.64.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 104.22.