Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.71%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which rose 7.43% or 0.130 points to trade at 1.880 at the close. Meanwhile, Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) added 5.71% or 0.060 points to end at 1.110 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) was up 5.64% or 0.190 points to 3.560 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Nine Ent Fpo (ASX:NEC), which fell 4.21% or 0.065 points to trade at 1.480 at the close. Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) declined 3.92% or 0.010 points to end at 0.245 and Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI) was down 3.85% or 0.005 points to 0.130.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 543 to 428 and 163 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.09% to 15.672.
Gold for December delivery was up 0.05% or 0.50 to $1097.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.29% or 0.14 to hit $47.84 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.24% or 0.13 to trade at $53.17 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.7322, while AUD/JPY fell 0.17% to 90.51.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.09% at 96.85.