Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.33%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the A-REITs, Industrials and Materials sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.33% to hit a new 6-months high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 9.47% or 0.09 points to trade at 1.04 at the close. Meanwhile, Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT) added 8.09% or 1.28 points to end at 17.11 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) was up 4.64% or 0.07 points to 1.47 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which fell 5.26% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.72 at the close. EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) declined 5.26% or 0.04 points to end at 0.63 and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV) was down 4.13% or 1.04 points to 24.13.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 713 to 644 and 379 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.74% to 12.60.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.29% or 5.65 to $1,939.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.10% or 0.08 to hit $78.95 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $85.42 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.18% to 0.71, while AUD/JPY rose 0.41% to 92.14.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 101.93.