Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.31% 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 rose 0.31%.

The best performers of the session on the were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:), which rose 5.83% or 0.28 points to trade at 5.08 at the close. Meanwhile, Pendal Group Ltd (ASX:) added 5.54% or 0.26 points to end at 4.95 and Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:) was up 5.51% or 0.15 points to 2.87 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Megaport Ltd (ASX:), which fell 22.14% or 1.88 points to trade at 6.61 at the close. Nuix Ltd (ASX:) declined 6.02% or 0.04 points to end at 0.62 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:) was down 5.88% or 0.04 points to 0.64.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 688 to 558 and 390 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.54% to 18.24.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.49% or 8.10 to $1,647.70 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.62% or 0.51 to hit $82.58 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.13 to trade at $90.16 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.14% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY fell 0.10% to 94.09.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 112.17.