Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG), which rose 20.73% or 0.170 points to trade at 0.990 at the close. Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) added 6.05% or 0.450 points to end at 7.890 and Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN) was up 4.80% or 0.440 points to 9.600 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE), which lost 5.04% or 0.260 points to trade at 4.900 in late trade. Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (AX:AAC) declined 3.88% or 0.075 points to end at 1.860 and Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK) shed 3.83% or 0.130 points to 3.260.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 519 to 467 and 373 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.93% to 16.335.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.36% or 4.55 to $1251.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.28% or 0.14 to hit $50.50 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.14% or 0.07 to trade at $51.51 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.07% to 0.7453, while AUD/JPY fell 0.30% to 79.82.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.09% at 93.76.