Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Materials and IT sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which rose 7.43% or 0.130 points to trade at 1.880 at the close. Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) added 5.71% or 0.060 points to end at 1.110 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) was up 5.64% or 0.190 points to 3.560 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nine Ent Fpo (ASX:NEC), which lost 4.21% or 0.065 points to trade at 1.480 in late trade. Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) declined 3.92% or 0.010 points to end at 0.245 and Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI) shed 3.85% or 0.005 points to 0.130.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 543 to 428 and 163 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 4.09% to 15.672.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.04% or 0.40 to $1097.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.29% or 0.14 to hit $47.84 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.29% or 0.15 to trade at $53.15 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.7322, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 90.52.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.09% at 96.85.