Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Healthcare and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.63%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Technology One Ltd (AX:TNE), which rose 5.80% or 0.275 points to trade at 5.015 at the close. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) added 4.89% or 0.510 points to end at 10.950 and Bega Cheese Ltd (AX:BGA) was up 4.03% or 0.310 points to 8.010 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Navitas Ltd (AX:NVT), which lost 3.66% or 0.155 points to trade at 4.075 in late trade. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) declined 2.76% or 0.050 points to end at 1.760 and Oil Search Ltd (AX:OSH) shed 2.39% or 0.210 points to 8.590.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 722 to 499 and 351 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 3.14% to 12.462.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.23% or 2.80 to $1224.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.64% or 0.43 to hit $66.73 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.65% or 0.47 to trade at $71.69 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.31% to 0.7366, while AUD/JPY fell 0.19% to 83.25.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.21% at 94.93.