Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the A-REITs, Healthcare and Energy sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.85%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 5.63% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.38 at the close. Meanwhile, Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) added 5.26% or 0.02 points to end at 0.30 and Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX:PME) was up 5.18% or 3.86 points to 78.40 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH), which fell 2.65% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.73 at the close. Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) declined 2.63% or 0.04 points to end at 1.48 and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) was down 2.18% or 0.08 points to 3.59.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 614 to 591 and 359 ended unchanged.
Shares in Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) fell to 5-year lows; falling 2.63% or 0.04 to 1.48.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.05% to 13.10.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.36% or 7.25 to $1,987.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.46% or 0.37 to hit $81.39 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.53% or 0.45 to trade at $85.47 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.02% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 95.88.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 106.61.