Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Gold, Materials and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.30% to hit a new 3-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (ASX:SXL), which rose 18.18% or 0.170 points to trade at 1.105 at the close. Retail Food Group Ltd (ASX:RFG) added 15.29% or 1.000 points to end at 7.540 and Seven Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:SVW) was up 10.84% or 0.670 points to 6.850 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Worleyparsons Ltd (ASX:WOR), which lost 12.20% or 1.37 points to trade at 9.86 in late trade. Pact Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:PGH) declined 9.64% or 0.48 points to end at 4.50 and Iress Ltd (ASX:IRE) shed 5.73% or 0.610 points to 10.030.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 343 to 235 and 44 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 3.51% to 13.459 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 1.00% or 12.00 to $1209.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 0.19% or 0.10 to hit $49.19 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.39 to trade at $58.84 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.73% to 0.7889, while AUD/JPY rose 0.51% to 93.62.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.10% at 94.42.