Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.71% to hit a new 1-month high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which rose 12.03% or 0.320 points to trade at 2.980 at the close. Meanwhile, Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR) added 9.84% or 0.570 points to end at 6.360 and Flexigroup Ltd (AX:FXL) was up 8.77% or 0.158 points to 1.952 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Carsales.Com Ltd (AX:CAR), which fell 2.26% or 0.280 points to trade at 12.130 at the close. Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK) declined 2.06% or 0.075 points to end at 3.565 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) was down 2.05% or 0.040 points to 1.910.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 653 to 426 and 324 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.02% to 16.668.
Gold for August delivery was up 0.30% or 3.95 to $1339.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.94% or 0.44 to hit $46.36 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.09% or 0.53 to trade at $47.94 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.26% to 0.7603, while AUD/JPY fell 0.61% to 79.30.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.17% at 96.39.