Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Gold, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.04% to hit a new 52-week high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which rose 5.34% or 0.055 points to trade at 1.085 at the close. Australian Agricultural Company Ltd (AX:AAC) added 2.91% or 0.048 points to end at 1.677 and Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK) was up 2.62% or 0.085 points to 3.325 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Telstra Corporation Ltd. (AX:TLS), which lost 7.46% or 0.340 points to trade at 4.220 in late trade. Vocus Fpo (AX:VOC) declined 4.20% or 0.150 points to end at 3.420 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) shed 3.41% or 0.015 points to 0.425.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 569 to 523 and 388 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 up 2.33% to 12.963 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.10% or 1.30 to $1275.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.21% or 0.11 to hit $53.51 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.21% or 0.12 to trade at $56.35 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7499, while AUD/JPY fell 0.10% to 82.12.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 100.59.