Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the , and sectors led shares higher.

The Sydney closing bell saw the stock rise 1.25%.

Zip Co Ltd (ASX) was the best performer of the session, rising 10.90% (0.52 points) to close at 5.29. Meanwhile, Mesoblast Ltd (ASX) increased 10.00% to 1.760, and Kogan.com Ltd. (ASX) was up 6.17 percent or 0.47 to 8.09 late trade.

Steadfast Group Ltd. (ASX) was the worst performer of the session, falling 4.01% or 0.20 point to close at 4.79. Polynovo Ltd. (ASX) fell 2.71%, or 0.040 point to close at 1.435. Orora Ltd. (ASX) dropped 2.31%, or 0.08 to 3.38.

The Sydney Stock Exchange saw rising stocks surpass declining stocks by 928, 466 and 367 respectively.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.28% to 13.981.

The February delivery of Gold Futures was higher by 0.38%, or 6.75, to $1791.45 per troy ounce. In commodities trading, crude oil fell 0.67 percent or 0.93% to $71.38 per barrel in January, and the February Brent oil contract dropped 0.53 or 0.70% to $74.91 per barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.18% at 0.7131 while AUD/JPY dropped 0.01% at 80.83.

US Dollar Index Futures were down 0.2% to 96.160