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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.79% to hit a new 52-week high.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 6.19% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.60 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 5.00% or 0.01 points to end at 0.21 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 4.41% or 0.08 points to 1.89 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH), which fell 2.12% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.93 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 1.97% or 0.01 points to end at 0.62 and Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH) was down 1.79% or 0.02 points to 0.82.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 746 to 424 and 339 ended unchanged.

Shares in Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) rose to 52-week highs; rising 4.41% or 0.08 to 1.89.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 9.76% to 10.76.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.35% or 7.30 to $2,077.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.20% or 0.15 to hit $75.42 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.05% or 0.04 to trade at $80.81 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.10% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.22% to 97.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 101.14.