Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Financials, Energy and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 1.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG), which rose 8.96% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.365 at the close. Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR) added 8.82% or 0.450 points to end at 5.550 and Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF) was up 4.47% or 0.300 points to 7.010 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN), which lost 9.62% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.235 in late trade. UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL) declined 5.19% or 0.140 points to end at 2.560 and Vocus Fpo (ASX:VOC) shed 5.17% or 0.310 points to 5.690.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 522 to 521 and 203 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 2.24% to 16.859.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.19% or 2.20 to $1178.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.12% or 0.07 to hit $60.52 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.13% or 0.09 to trade at $63.78 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.47% to 0.7716, while AUD/JPY fell 0.32% to 95.34.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 95.17.