Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Gold and Resources sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.59%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG), which rose 21.64% or 0.370 points to trade at 2.080 at the close. Meanwhile, AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) added 15.07% or 0.110 points to end at 0.840 and Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) was up 11.92% or 0.540 points to 5.070 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Pact Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:PGH), which fell 5.67% or 0.280 points to trade at 4.660 at the close. Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) declined 4.87% or 0.110 points to end at 2.150 and Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX:PTM) was down 4.82% or 0.340 points to 6.720.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 503 to 436 and 147 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.99% to 22.378 a new 1-month low.
Gold for December delivery was up 0.32% or 3.70 to $1150.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 1.99% or 0.96 to hit $49.49 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 1.31% or 0.68 to trade at $52.60 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.43% to 0.7196, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 86.32.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.07% at 95.59.