Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Discretionary, Utilities and IT sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.71% to hit a new 3-months high.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Res F (AX:SYR), which rose 14.77% or 0.390 points to trade at 3.030 at the close. Meanwhile, Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) added 12.50% or 0.058 points to end at 0.517 and APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX:APO) was up 8.70% or 0.470 points to 5.870 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:SKT), which fell 10.68% or 0.490 points to trade at 4.100 at the close. A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) declined 5.56% or 0.120 points to end at 2.040 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) was down 4.45% or 0.130 points to 2.790.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 607 to 434 and 323 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.77% to 12.579.
Gold for February delivery was up 0.27% or 3.15 to $1162.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 1.26% or 0.67 to hit $52.31 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 1.20% or 0.67 to trade at $55.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7490, while AUD/JPY fell 0.08% to 86.31.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 101.02.