Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Consumer Staples and Gold sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.05%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN), which rose 16.82% or 0.180 points to trade at 1.250 at the close. Meanwhile, Select Harvests Ltd (ASX:SHV) added 9.29% or 1.040 points to end at 12.240 and G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) was up 7.84% or 0.240 points to 3.300 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Perpetual Ltd (ASX:PPT), which fell 6.58% or 3.210 points to trade at 45.600 at the close. Breville Group Ltd (ASX:BRG) declined 5.82% or 0.380 points to end at 6.150 and Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:SVW) was down 4.00% or 0.250 points to 6.000.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 607 to 356 and 174 ended unchanged.
Shares in Select Harvests Ltd (ASX:SHV) rose to 5-year highs; gaining 9.29% or 1.040 to 12.240.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 8.82% to 16.805.
Gold for August delivery was down 0.03% or 0.30 to $1153.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $53.05 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.14% or 0.09 to trade at $58.59 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.25% to 0.7472, while AUD/JPY rose 0.33% to 92.28.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 96.87.