Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.90% 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 0.90%.

The best performers of the session on the were Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:), which rose 9.09% or 0.10 points to trade at 1.14 at the close. Meanwhile, Kogan.com Ltd (ASX:) added 5.82% or 0.23 points to end at 4.18 and IGO Ltd (ASX:) was up 5.18% or 0.72 points to 14.63 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Xero Ltd (ASX:), which fell 3.28% or 2.35 points to trade at 69.29 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:) declined 2.54% or 0.23 points to end at 8.84 and Polynovo Ltd (ASX:) was down 2.40% or 0.06 points to 2.44.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 788 to 466 and 357 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.02% to 13.05.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.54% or 10.10 to $1,886.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.60% or 0.45 to hit $74.67 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.45% or 0.36 to trade at $79.74 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.26% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY rose 0.32% to 91.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 102.95.