Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.58% to hit a new 1-month high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 13.00% or 0.07 points to trade at 0.57 at the close. Meanwhile, Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) added 12.66% or 0.20 points to end at 1.78 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was up 10.83% or 0.09 points to 0.87 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were News Corp B DRC (ASX:NWS), which fell 11.15% or 2.89 points to trade at 23.04 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) declined 8.50% or 0.80 points to end at 8.61 and CSR Ltd (ASX:CSR) was down 5.36% or 0.25 points to 4.41.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 723 to 598 and 356 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.08% to 16.16.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.13% or 2.20 to $1,713.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.21% or 0.19 to hit $88.72 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.04 to trade at $95.32 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.11% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 94.69.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 109.64.