Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the A-REITs, Consumer Discretionary and Energy sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.66%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 9.22% or 0.200 points to trade at 2.370 at the close. Meanwhile, Smartgroup Corporation Ltd (ASX:SIQ) added 7.62% or 0.48 points to end at 6.78 and G.U.D. Holdings Ltd (ASX:GUD) was up 5.62% or 0.66 points to 12.41 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG), which fell 3.77% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.765 at the close. Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:RMS) declined 3.32% or 0.055 points to end at 1.600 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was down 3.02% or 0.080 points to 2.570.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 754 to 481 and 387 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 8.68% to 13.537.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.02% or 0.30 to $1870.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 1.15% or 0.54 to hit $46.48 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 1.06% or 0.53 to trade at $49.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.57% to 0.7564, while AUD/JPY rose 0.35% to 78.21.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.26% at 90.312.