Australia Stock Market Update

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, with gains in the Consumer Staples, Gold, and Consumer Discretionary sectors leading shares up.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.13%.

Top Performers

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were:
– Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN): rose 3.44% or 0.26 points to trade at 7.82.
– Steadfast Group Ltd (ASX:SDF): added 2.78% or 0.15 points to end at 5.55.
– JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX:JBH): up 2.60% or 2.05 points to 80.87.

Worst Performers

The worst performers of the session were:
– Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN): fell 4.96% or 1.88 points to trade at 35.99.
– Appen Ltd (ASX:APX): declined 4.43% or 0.09 points to end at 1.94.
– Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL): down 4.00% or 0.04 points to 0.97.

Market Summary

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 551 to 546, with 454 ending unchanged.

Shares in Qantas Airways Ltd rose to all-time highs, gaining 3.44% or 0.26 to 7.82.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.80% to 12.83, a new 1-month high.

Commodities

• Gold Futures for December delivery were up 0.23% or 6.30 to $2,766.10 a troy ounce.
• Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.13% or 0.09 to $71.65 a barrel.
• The December Brent oil contract fell 0.09% or 0.07 to trade at $75.97 a barrel.

Currency Update

• AUD/USD unchanged at 0.06% to 0.67.

• AUD/JPY rose 0.56% to 101.53.

• The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 103.97.