Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.23% to hit a new 3-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO), which rose 27.27% or 0.045 points to trade at 0.210 at the close. BC Iron Ltd (ASX:BCI) added 15.79% or 0.075 points to end at 0.550 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) was up 15.38% or 0.050 points to 0.375 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Navitas Ltd (ASX:NVT), which lost 7.37% or 0.350 points to trade at 4.400 in late trade. Kathmandu Holdings Ltd (ASX:KMD) declined 4.36% or 0.060 points to end at 1.315 and Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF) shed 3.99% or 0.240 points to 5.770.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 399 to 194 and 34 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 up 6.96% to 15.396.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.22% or 2.80 to $1263.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March fell 1.19% or 0.63 to hit $52.42 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract rose 1.41% or 0.81 to trade at $57.78 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.60% to 0.7839, while AUD/JPY rose 0.74% to 92.29.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.05% at 93.81.