Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Gold, Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary 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 Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX:MYR), which rose 10.28% or 0.145 points to trade at 1.555 at the close. G.U.D. Holdings Ltd (ASX:GUD) added 9.35% or 0.710 points to end at 8.300 and Sundance Energy Australia Ltd (ASX:SEA) was up 6.82% or 0.045 points to 0.705 in late trade.
Biggest losers included STW Communications Group Ltd (ASX:SGN), which lost 8.63% or 0.060 points to trade at 0.635 in late trade. Ansell Ltd (ASX:ANN) declined 4.36% or 1.150 points to end at 25.250 and Ozforex Grp (ASX:OFX) shed 2.80% or 0.070 points to 2.430.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 541 to 443 and 200 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 8.15% to 16.464.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.20% or 2.40 to $1194.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.03% or 0.62 to hit $61.38 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.79% or 0.53 to trade at $67.91 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.01% to 0.7977, while AUD/JPY fell 0.02% to 95.59.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.28% at 94.44.