Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Financials and Resources sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.59% to hit a new 6-months high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which rose 10.71% or 0.150 points to trade at 1.550 at the close. Meanwhile, Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) added 9.05% or 0.36 points to end at 4.34 and Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT) was up 8.92% or 1.48 points to 18.07 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 7.16% or 0.320 points to trade at 4.150 at the close. Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) declined 6.99% or 0.95 points to end at 12.65 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) was down 6.39% or 0.40 points to 5.86.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 714 to 594 and 347 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 11.78% to 13.949 a new 6-months low.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.13% or 2.30 to $1806.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.71% or 0.32 to hit $45.23 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.92% or 0.44 to trade at $48.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.24% to 0.7342, while AUD/JPY fell 0.21% to 76.69.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 92.055.