Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Consumer Discretionary and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.27%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Spotless Fp (AX:SPO), which rose 15.26% or 0.145 points to trade at 1.095 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) added 12.99% or 0.050 points to end at 0.435 and Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) was up 11.17% or 0.110 points to 1.095 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which lost 9.40% or 0.055 points to trade at 0.530 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) declined 7.01% or 0.190 points to end at 2.520 and Aurizon Holdings Ltd (AX:AZJ) shed 6.28% or 0.260 points to 3.880.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 510 to 509 and 166 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 9.11% to 21.790.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.03% or 0.30 to $1084.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 1.07% or 0.33 to hit $30.77 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.86% or 0.27 to trade at $31.12 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.41% to 0.7014, while AUD/JPY rose 0.82% to 82.86.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.16% at 99.19.