Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT, Financials and Energy sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.15%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 10.22% or 0.070 points to trade at 0.755 at the close. Meanwhile, M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) added 4.66% or 0.065 points to end at 1.460 and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG) was up 4.20% or 0.025 points to 0.620 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ioof Holdings Ltd (AX:IFL), which fell 5.32% or 0.470 points to trade at 8.360 at the close. Seven Group Holdings Ltd (AX:SVW) declined 5.14% or 0.310 points to end at 5.720 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) was down 4.33% or 0.110 points to 2.430.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 467 to 432 and 294 ended unchanged.
Shares in M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) rose to all time highs; gaining 4.66% or 0.065 to 1.460.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.30% to 16.603 a new 1-month low.
Gold for April delivery was up 0.33% or 4.10 to $1235.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.43% or 0.52 to hit $36.86 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.90% or 0.35 to trade at $39.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.01% to 0.7460, while AUD/JPY rose 0.28% to 84.62.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.19% at 96.84.