Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT, A-REITs and Industrials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.26%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were James Hardie Industries PLC (ASX:JHX), which rose 13.20% or 5.45 points to trade at 46.74 at the close. Meanwhile, Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) added 6.31% or 0.11 points to end at 1.77 and Ramsay Health Care Ltd (ASX:RHC) was up 3.98% or 2.04 points to 53.29 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were South32 Ltd (ASX:S32), which fell 4.31% or 0.14 points to trade at 3.11 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) declined 3.75% or 0.01 points to end at 0.19 and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) was down 2.93% or 0.23 points to 7.62.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 635 to 546 and 337 ended unchanged.
Shares in South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) fell to 52-week lows; losing 4.31% or 0.14 to 3.11.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.86% to 12.18.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.07% or 1.45 to $1,972.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.52% or 0.40 to hit $76.97 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.20 to trade at $81.41 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.05% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY rose 0.18% to 96.88.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 105.50.