Welcome to your five-minute recap of the trading day, and how the experts saw it.

The numbers: The Australian sharemarket posted its best performance in almost six months on Wednesday after solid gains on Wall Street overnight.

The S&P/ASX200 closed 50.50 points, or 0.7 per cent, higher at 7231.80, powered by mining heavyweights and energy stocks which kept the bourse in positive territory.

The lifters: Whitehaven and Yancoal were two of the day’s best performers amid continued hopes for higher coal prices as demand in the Northern Hemisphere increases ahead of winter. Whitehaven surged 5.6 per cent to $9.62, while Yancoal jumped 3.8 per cent to $5.42.

The laggards: The information technology sector performed poorly. WiseTech global slumped 6.7 per cent to $53.84 following the software maker’s AGM on Wednesday morning, where CEO Richard White maintained the company’s profit guidance for earnings growth of 21 percent to 30 per cent this year, disappointing any investor hopes for a profit upgrade.

The lowdown: It was a reasonably strong day for the Australian sharemarket as the S&P/ASX200 neared its highest level in the past six months, turbocharged by a few well-performing stocks.

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One of the strongest performers was Qantas, which closed 5.3 per cent higher at $6.18 after lifting its profit forecast for the December half. The airline said it now expects between $1.35 billion and $1.45 billion in underlying profit before tax in the first half of its financial year, up $150 million from its previous guidance given in October.

Senior investment advisor at Shaw and Partners, Craig Sidney, said that the market was seeing consistent strength across the materials and energy sectors, with the banks also holding up well. The big four banks all closed higher, with the strongest gains made by NAB, which added 1 per cent. Millionaires’ factory Macquarie gained 1.6 per cent.