Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.41%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT), which rose 7.08% or 1.580 points to trade at 23.900 at the close. Meanwhile, Bingo Industries Ltd (ASX:BIN) added 5.52% or 0.100 points to end at 1.910 and Cooper Energy Ltd (ASX:COE) was up 4.95% or 0.025 points to 0.530 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Vocus Group Ltd (ASX:VOC), which fell 17.69% or 0.810 points to trade at 3.770 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) declined 5.60% or 0.230 points to end at 3.880 and Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) was down 4.06% or 0.190 points to 4.490.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 642 to 550 and 376 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.21% to 14.258.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.70% or 9.35 to $1338.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.99% or 0.53 to hit $52.95 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.73% or 0.45 to trade at $61.52 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.14% to 0.6999, while AUD/JPY rose 0.09% to 75.66.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.00% at 96.995.
