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 gained 0.43% to hit a new 3-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV), which rose 6.75% or 0.340 points to trade at 5.380 at the close. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) added 5.72% or 0.190 points to end at 3.510 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) was up 5.41% or 0.040 points to 0.780 in late trade.
Biggest losers included James Hardie Industries PLC (AX:JHX), which lost 6.30% or 1.230 points to trade at 18.300 in late trade. Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) declined 5.40% or 0.135 points to end at 2.365 and Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API) shed 4.56% or 0.090 points to 1.885.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 572 to 446 and 374 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 0.94% to 15.687.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.49% or 6.20 to $1248.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 2.40% or 1.02 to hit $41.45 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 2.41% or 1.06 to trade at $42.97 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.51% to 0.7773, while AUD/JPY fell 0.75% to 84.68.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.04% at 94.11.