Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Gold, Telecoms Services and A-REITs sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.65% to hit a new 6-months high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which rose 5.43% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.46 at the close. Meanwhile, Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) added 5.10% or 0.05 points to end at 1.03 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was up 5.07% or 0.04 points to 0.72 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Orica Ltd (ASX:ORI), which fell 2.53% or 0.42 points to trade at 16.21 at the close. Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) declined 2.12% or 0.04 points to end at 1.62 and ARB Corporation Ltd (ASX:ARB) was down 1.79% or 0.65 points to 35.65.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 762 to 471 and 376 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.10% to 9.90.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.07% or 1.35 to $2,053.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.11% or 0.08 to hit $74.02 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.01% or 0.01 to trade at $79.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.16% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.02% to 97.25.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 101.83.