Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Energy, Financials and Resources sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 2.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which rose 28.18% or 0.620 points to trade at 2.820 at the close. Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) added 17.44% or 0.750 points to end at 5.050 and AWE Ltd (AX:AWE) was up 11.54% or 0.060 points to 0.580 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Slater & Gordon Ltd (AX:SGH), which lost 17.46% or 0.055 points to trade at 0.260 in late trade. Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) declined 8.25% or 0.085 points to end at 0.945 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) shed 7.43% or 0.300 points to 3.740.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 562 to 391 and 264 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 5.93% to 20.027.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.21% or 2.60 to $1228.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.52% or 0.18 to hit $34.22 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.24% or 0.09 to trade at $36.90 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.89% to 0.7238, while AUD/JPY rose 1.21% to 82.78.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.15% at 98.49.