Australian Stock Market Update

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, with gains in the A-REITs, Healthcare, and Energy sectors leading to higher shares.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.24%.

Best Performers

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were:
– EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML): rose 12.86% (or 0.09 points) to trade at 0.79
– Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW): added 5.26% (or 0.02 points) to end at 0.40
– Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1): was up 3.91% (or 0.29 points) to 7.71 in late trade.

Worst Performers

The worst performers of the session were:
– St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM): fell 36.07% (or 0.11 points) to trade at 0.20
– Appen Ltd (ASX:APX): declined 4.37% (or 0.10 points) to end at 2.19
– Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH): down 3.03% (or 0.03 points) to 0.97.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 0 to 0.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.51% to 11.23.

Commodities

• Gold Futures for February delivery: unchanged 0.00% at $2,633.50 a troy ounce.
• Crude oil for February delivery: fell 0.09% (or 0.06) to hit $70.10 a barrel.
• March Brent oil contract: rose 1.24% (or 0.90) to trade at $73.22 a barrel.

Currency Update

• AUD/USD: unchanged 0.06% to 0.62
• AUD/JPY: rose 0.12% to 98.14.
• US Dollar Index Futures: up 0.18% at 108.00.