Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 7.83% or 0.033 points to trade at 0.448 at the close. Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) added 4.73% or 0.105 points to end at 2.325 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) was up 4.59% or 0.280 points to 6.380 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS), which lost 5.35% or 0.130 points to trade at 2.300 in late trade. G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) declined 4.77% or 0.190 points to end at 3.790 and Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) shed 4.43% or 0.035 points to 0.755.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 570 to 519 and 362 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 3.06% to 11.869.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.12% or 1.45 to $1256.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.78% or 0.40 to hit $51.43 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.36 to trade at $54.53 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.21% to 0.7581, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 83.94.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 100.40.