Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.38%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Metals&Mining and Materials sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.38%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Domino'S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX:DMP), which rose 11.81% or 5.67 points to trade at 53.70 at the close. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) added 10.13% or 0.04 points to end at 0.44 and Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) was up 9.49% or 2.21 points to 25.50 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC), which fell 19.62% or 16.99 points to trade at 69.60 at the close. Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) declined 11.27% or 1.05 points to end at 8.27 and Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN) was down 8.89% or 0.40 points to 4.10.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 631 to 607 and 418 ended unchanged.

Shares in Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) fell to 52-week lows; losing 11.27% or 1.05 to 8.27.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.67% to 11.89.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.37% or 7.05 to $1,933.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.69% or 0.55 to hit $79.09 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.69% or 0.58 to trade at $83.45 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.14% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY fell 0.26% to 93.47.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 103.62.