Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Financials, Energy and Telecoms Services sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.08%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG), which rose 8.96% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.365 at the close. Meanwhile, Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR) added 8.82% or 0.450 points to end at 5.550 and Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF) was up 4.47% or 0.300 points to 7.010 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN), which fell 9.62% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.235 at the close. UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL) declined 5.19% or 0.140 points to end at 2.560 and Vocus Fpo (ASX:VOC) was down 5.17% or 0.310 points to 5.690.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 522 to 521 and 203 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.24% to 16.859.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.19% or 2.20 to $1178.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.12% or 0.07 to hit $60.52 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.09 to trade at $63.79 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.48% to 0.7714, while AUD/JPY fell 0.33% to 95.33.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 95.18.