Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.55%

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 0.55%.

The best performers of the session on the were Ampol Ltd (ASX:), which rose 4.36% or 1.30 points to trade at 31.14 at the close. Meanwhile, Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:) added 3.83% or 0.05 points to end at 1.22 and Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX:) was up 3.73% or 0.81 points to 22.54 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:), which fell 5.83% or 0.78 points to trade at 12.59 at the close. Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:) declined 2.61% or 0.29 points to end at 10.84 and Medibank Private Ltd (ASX:) was down 2.55% or 0.09 points to 3.44.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 745 to 490 and 417 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.55% to 11.44.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.09% or 1.75 to $1,982.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.29% or 0.22 to hit $75.44 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.16% or 0.13 to trade at $79.50 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.36% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.07% to 94.63.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 99.77.