Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Energy and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.36%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Vocus Group Ltd (AX:VOC), which rose 9.97% or 0.350 points to trade at 3.860 at the close. Seek Ltd (AX:SEK) added 8.25% or 1.430 points to end at 18.770 and Bingo Industries Ltd (AX:BIN) was up 7.01% or 0.095 points to 1.450 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT), which lost 8.19% or 0.580 points to trade at 6.500 in late trade. Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (AX:RWC) declined 6.56% or 0.320 points to end at 4.560 and Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE) shed 3.36% or 0.080 points to 2.300.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 600 to 553 and 370 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 5.37% to 11.598.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.08% or 1.05 to $1329.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.88% or 0.49 to hit $55.99 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.57% or 0.37 to trade at $65.73 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.03% to 0.7188, while AUD/JPY rose 0.04% to 79.49.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 96.002.