Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Financials, IT and Healthcare sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.72%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Seven Group Holdings Ltd (AX:SVW), which rose 10.68% or 1.090 points to trade at 11.300 at the close. A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX:A2M) added 7.07% or 0.210 points to end at 3.180 and Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) was up 4.74% or 0.220 points to 4.860 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which lost 10.80% or 0.310 points to trade at 2.560 in late trade. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) declined 9.11% or 0.088 points to end at 0.873 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) shed 6.77% or 0.310 points to 4.270.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 573 to 565 and 362 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 6.17% to 12.476.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.23% or 2.91 to $1264.29 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.12% or 0.06 to hit $49.50 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.04 to trade at $52.53 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.24% to 0.7518, while AUD/JPY rose 0.01% to 83.73.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 98.65.