Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.66%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the A-REITs, Materials and Metals & Mining sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.66% to hit a new all time high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX:PTM), which rose 8.70% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.50 at the close. Meanwhile, Perpetual Ltd (ASX:PPT) added 8.75% or 1.62 points to end at 20.14 and Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) was up 5.96% or 0.52 points to 9.24 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Domino’S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX:DMP), which fell 15.79% or 3.18 points to trade at 16.96 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) declined 8.97% or 0.17 points to end at 1.67 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) was down 5.30% or 0.17 points to 3.04.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 628 to 470 and 438 ended unchanged.

Shares in Domino’S Pizza Enterprises Ltd (ASX:DMP) fell to 5-year lows; falling 15.79% or 3.18 to 16.96.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.32% to 10.95.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.17% or 5.55 to $3,344.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.21% or 0.14 to hit $65.31 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.13% or 0.09 to trade at $67.02 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.05% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.14% to 94.54.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 96.46.