Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.10% By Investing.com

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the added 0.10% to hit a new 6-months high.

The best performers of the session on the were Codan Ltd (ASX:), which rose 8.90% or 0.39 points to trade at 4.77 at the close. Meanwhile, Polynovo Ltd (ASX:) added 4.96% or 0.12 points to end at 2.54 and Blackmores Ltd (ASX:) was up 4.30% or 3.59 points to 87.05 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Hub24 Ltd (ASX:), which fell 4.79% or 1.28 points to trade at 25.42 at the close. Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:) declined 4.56% or 0.08 points to end at 1.67 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.45% or 0.03 points to 0.84.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 655 to 582 and 415 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.02% to 13.09.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.02% or 0.45 to $1,909.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.93% or 0.75 to hit $81.20 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.72% or 0.62 to trade at $86.54 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.53% to 0.70, while AUD/JPY rose 2.28% to 91.56.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 102.07.