Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Telecoms Services and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were South32 Ltd (AX:S32), which rose 4.39% or 0.073 points to trade at 1.722 at the close. Rea Group Ltd (AX:REA) added 3.54% or 2.040 points to end at 59.640 and Growthpoint Properties Australia (AX:GOZ) was up 2.91% or 0.095 points to 3.355 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which lost 10.80% or 0.155 points to trade at 1.280 in late trade. Spotless Fp (AX:SPO) declined 6.80% or 0.078 points to end at 1.062 and Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL) shed 5.67% or 0.190 points to 3.160.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 530 to 481 and 366 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 5.70% to 21.058.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.55% or 7.00 to $1265.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.64% or 0.32 to hit $50.17 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.59% or 0.30 to trade at $50.92 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7462, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 78.02.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.13% at 94.04.