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 added 0.71% to hit a new 1-month high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which rose 12.03% or 0.320 points to trade at 2.980 at the close. Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR) added 9.84% or 0.570 points to end at 6.360 and Flexigroup Ltd (AX:FXL) was up 8.77% or 0.158 points to 1.952 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Carsales.Com Ltd (AX:CAR), which lost 2.26% or 0.280 points to trade at 12.130 in late trade. Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK) declined 2.06% or 0.075 points to end at 3.565 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) shed 2.05% or 0.040 points to 1.910.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 653 to 426 and 324 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 0.91% to 16.686.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.29% or 3.85 to $1339.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.98% or 0.46 to hit $46.34 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.16% or 0.56 to trade at $47.91 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.26% to 0.7603, while AUD/JPY fell 0.61% to 79.30.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.18% at 96.38.