Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.51%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Crown Ltd (ASX:CWN), which rose 11.05% or 0.950 points to trade at 9.550 at the close. Meanwhile, Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (ASX:CTD) added 10.50% or 1.05 points to end at 11.05 and Virgin Money UK PLC (ASX:VUK) was up 10.21% or 0.14 points to 1.56 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Avita Medical (ASX:AVH), which fell 5.43% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.435 at the close. Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Ltd (ASX:FPH) declined 4.45% or 1.21 points to end at 25.99 and Coles Group Ltd (ASX:COL) was down 4.44% or 0.72 points to 15.51.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 758 to 418 and 334 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.73% to 23.403 a new 1-month low.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.05% or 0.90 to $1723.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 13.13% or 1.62 to hit $13.96 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 2.02% or 0.46 to trade at $23.20 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.68% to 0.6534, while AUD/JPY rose 0.40% to 69.62.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 99.785.