Title: Australia stocks higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 1.65%

Jul 20, 2022 03:45AM ET

By: AnalysisWatch

Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT, Materials and Metals & Mining sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.65%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mega port Ltd, which rose 23.03% or 1.49 points to trade at 7.96 at the close. Meanwhile, Zip Co Ltd added 12.71% or 0.08 points to end at 0.67 and Nano Sonics Ltd was up 10.00% or 0.41 points to 4.51 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were NIB Holdings, which fell 3.19% or 0.24 points to trade at 7.28 at the close. Pendal Group Ltd (ASX:PDL) declined 2.03% or 0.09 points to end at 4.34 and Austal Ltd was down 1.97% or 0.05 points to 2.49.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 987 to 382 and 343 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.11% to 17.08 a new 1-month low.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.30% or 5.10 to $1,705.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.81% or 1.82 to hit $98.92 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.52% or 1.63 to trade at $105.72 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY rose 0.05% to 95.37.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 106.49.