Australian shares are up at the close; The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.01% Via Investing.com

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

At the close in Sydney, it rose 0.01% to hit a new all-time high.

The best performers of the session on the were Austal Ltd (ASX: ), which rose 4.43% or 0.12 points to trade at 2.83 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX: ) added 4.04% or 0.07 points to end at 1.68 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX: ) was up 3.08% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.67 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were EML Payments Ltd (ASX: ), which fell 4.08% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.71 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX: ) declined 3.51% or 0.01 points to end at 0.28 and Resmed Inc DRC (ASX: ) declined 3.12% or 1.16 points to 36. 19.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 555 to 523, with 415 ending unchanged.

Shares in Austal Ltd (ASX:) rose to 3-year highs; up 4.43% or 0.12 to 2.83. Shares in Appen Ltd (ASX:) rose to 52-week highs; up 4.04% or 0.07 to 1.68.

which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, fell 2.35% to 11.81.

Gold futures for December delivery rose 0.08%, or 2.10, to $2,594.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodity trading, crude oil for November delivery fell 0.74%, or 0.52, to $69.44 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.77% or 0.57, to 73.13 dollars per barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.17% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.41% to 95.80.

US dollar index futures fell 0.03% to 100.54.