Australian stocks concluded Wednesday’s trading session on a positive note, buoyed by gains in the A-REITs, Healthcare, and Materials sectors.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 index ascended by 0.31%.
Among the session’s top performers on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which surged by 19.57% or 0.05 points to reach 0.28 by the close. Similarly, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) witnessed a notable increase of 14.18% or 0.10 points, settling at 0.77, while Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) saw a gain of 6.39% or 0.13 points, reaching 2.08 in late trading.
Conversely, the session witnessed declines for Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX), which fell by 4.34% or 0.10 points to 2.10 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) recorded a decrease of 3.85% or 0.04 points, concluding at 0.88, while Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) experienced a dip of 3.28% or 3.01 points, closing at 88.88.
On the Sydney Stock Exchange, rising stocks surpassed declining ones, with 615 shares registering gains, 556 shares recording losses, and 457 ending unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, indicative of the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, rose by 2.88% to 11.31.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery saw an increase of 0.58% or 13.70 to $2,376.10 per troy ounce. Crude oil for delivery in May rose by 0.33% or 0.28 to $85.51 per barrel, while the June Brent oil contract climbed by 0.31% or 0.28 to trade at $89.70 per barrel.
The AUD/USD pair remained unchanged at 0.66, while the AUD/JPY pair fell by 0.06% to 100.54.
The US Dollar Index Futures saw a marginal increase of 0.01% to 103.93.