Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.63% 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 gained 1.63%.

The best performers of the session on the were Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:), which rose 8.60% or 0.75 points to trade at 9.47 at the close. Meanwhile, Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:) added 6.63% or 0.24 points to end at 3.86 and Appen Ltd (ASX:) was up 6.58% or 0.16 points to 2.59 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:), which fell 2.38% or 0.84 points to trade at 34.50 at the close. Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:) declined 1.87% or 0.05 points to end at 2.62 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:) was down 1.77% or 0.01 points to 0.56.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 756 to 430 and 370 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.57% to 13.10.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 1.12% or 20.70 to $1,866.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 2.01% or 1.55 to hit $75.38 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 2.12% or 1.74 to trade at $80.36 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 2.15% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY rose 1.79% to 89.69.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.52% at 103.76.