Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Healthcare and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 12.86% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.79 at the close. Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) added 5.26% or 0.02 points to end at 0.40 and Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) was up 3.91% or 0.29 points to 7.71 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which lost 36.07% or 0.11 points to trade at 0.20 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 4.37% or 0.10 points to end at 2.19 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) shed 3.03% or 0.03 points to 0.97.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 0 to 0 on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.51% to 11.23.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to $2,633.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.09% or 0.06 to hit $70.10 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 1.24% or 0.90 to trade at $73.22 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.06% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY rose 0.04% to 98.06.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.18% at 108.00.