Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.11% 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 rose 0.11%.

The best performers of the session on the were Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:), which rose 12.72% or 2.86 points to trade at 25.35 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:) added 9.38% or 0.150 points to end at 1.750 and Cimic Group Ltd (ASX:) was up 7.56% or 1.88 points to 26.74 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:), which fell 9.15% or 0.270 points to trade at 2.680 at the close. Altium Ltd (ASX:) declined 6.21% or 1.87 points to end at 28.26 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:) was down 6.15% or 0.160 points to 2.440.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 739 to 572 and 372 ended unchanged.

Shares in Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:) rose to all time highs; gaining 12.72% or 2.86 to 25.35.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.58% to 14.233.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.76% or 14.10 to $1858.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.73% or 0.39 to hit $53.60 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.72% or 0.41 to trade at $56.99 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.02% to 0.7770, while AUD/JPY fell 0.08% to 80.55.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 89.953.