Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Consumer Staples and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd (ASX:AGI), which rose 14.23% or 0.400 points to trade at 3.210 at the close. Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX:TWE) added 13.43% or 0.740 points to end at 6.250 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) was up 12.67% or 0.140 points to 1.245 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Seek Ltd (ASX:SEK), which lost 10.96% or 1.510 points to trade at 12.270 in late trade. Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG) declined 5.95% or 0.025 points to end at 0.395 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) shed 5.88% or 0.010 points to 0.160.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 505 to 491 and 162 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 6.55% to 18.062.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.38% or 4.30 to $1121.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.50% or 0.21 to hit $42.91 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.23% or 0.11 to trade at $48.70 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7354, while AUD/JPY rose 0.04% to 91.38.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.23% at 96.77.