Investing.com – Australia stocks were higher after the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT , A-REITs and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.69% to hit a new 1-month high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM ), which rose 8.33% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.29 at the close. Meanwhile, Megaport Ltd (ASX: MP1 ) added 3.71% or 0.41 points to end at 11.45 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX: EML ) was up 3.70% or 0.04 points to 0.98 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX: APX ), which fell 10.11% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.80 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT ) declined 3.69% or 0.05 points to end at 1.17 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST ) was down 3.52% or 0.70 points to 19.18.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 576 to 529 and 415 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 6.48% to 11.78 a new 1-month low.

Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.51% or 16.94 to $3,316.66 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 1.11% or 0.67 to hit $59.75 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.95% or 0.60 to trade at $62.68 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.45% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY rose 0.63% to 91.42.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 99.03.