Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT, Energy and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 1.39%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA), which rose 7.78% or 0.260 points to trade at 3.600 at the close. Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) added 6.15% or 0.055 points to end at 0.950 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was up 5.83% or 0.140 points to 2.540 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which lost 3.66% or 0.170 points to trade at 4.470 in late trade. Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL) declined 3.14% or 0.140 points to end at 4.320 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) shed 2.46% or 0.210 points to 8.320.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 639 to 469 and 347 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 7.67% to 17.311.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.06% or 0.75 to $1249.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.58% or 0.30 to hit $52.25 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 1.13% or 0.68 to trade at $60.88 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7212, while AUD/JPY rose 0.15% to 81.81.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 97.335.