Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Financials and Telecoms Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 2.10%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which rose 8.98% or 0.150 points to trade at 1.820 at the close. Meanwhile, M2 Telecommunications Group Ltd (ASX:MTU) added 7.47% or 0.660 points to end at 9.490 and Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) was up 7.26% or 0.085 points to 1.255 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 8.93% or 0.310 points to trade at 3.160 at the close. Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) declined 7.01% or 0.300 points to end at 3.980 and Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX:CCP) was down 3.50% or 0.370 points to 10.210.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 585 to 356 and 169 ended unchanged.
Shares in Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) fell to 5-year lows; losing 7.01% or 0.300 to 3.980.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.48% to 26.304.
Gold for December delivery was down 0.30% or 3.40 to $1123.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.61% or 0.28 to hit $44.95 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.49% or 0.23 to trade at $47.99 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.12% to 0.6994, while AUD/JPY rose 0.33% to 83.93.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.21% at 96.27.