Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.65%

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 1.65% to hit a new 1-month high.

The best performers of the session on the were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:), which rose 12.27% or 0.17 points to trade at 1.51 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:) added 7.89% or 0.05 points to end at 0.61 and Alumina Ltd (ASX:) was up 6.85% or 0.05 points to 0.78 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:), which fell 13.04% or 0.54 points to trade at 3.60 at the close. Nuix Ltd (ASX:) declined 3.20% or 0.06 points to end at 1.82 and Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX:) was down 2.11% or 0.04 points to 1.63.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 723 to 512 and 363 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.96% to 11.09.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.20% or 4.05 to $2,040.35 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $72.33 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.07 to trade at $77.27 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.60% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.61% to 97.00.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 103.88.