Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Healthcare, Materials and Financials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.78%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS), which rose 5.50% or 0.080 points to trade at 1.535 at the close. Meanwhile, Cimic Group Ltd (ASX:CIM) added 4.47% or 0.85 points to end at 19.85 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) was up 4.02% or 0.47 points to 12.15 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Altium Ltd (ASX:ALU), which fell 5.04% or 1.74 points to trade at 32.81 at the close. Hub24 Ltd (ASX:HUB) declined 3.86% or 0.98 points to end at 24.42 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) was down 3.23% or 0.020 points to 0.600.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 789 to 555 and 384 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.98% to 12.231.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.22% or 3.95 to $1807.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.45% or 0.30 to hit $67.50 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.42% or 0.29 to trade at $69.64 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.40% to 0.7300, while AUD/JPY fell 0.17% to 80.36.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.20% at 93.162.