Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Financials, Real Estate Investment and Utilities sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.89%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Cimic Group Ltd (AX:CIM), which rose 6.16% or 2.390 points to trade at 41.190 at the close. ANZ Banking Group (AX:ANZ) added 4.13% or 1.170 points to end at 29.470 and Westpac Banking Corporation (AX:WBC) was up 3.92% or 1.205 points to 31.975 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which lost 6.72% or 0.180 points to trade at 2.500 in late trade. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) declined 5.34% or 0.190 points to end at 3.370 and Nextdc Ltd (AX:NXT) shed 4.25% or 0.190 points to 4.280.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 555 to 551 and 333 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 1.44% to 13.199.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.24% or 2.92 to $1238.98 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.41% or 0.19 to hit $46.21 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.39% or 0.19 to trade at $48.65 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.23% to 0.7934, while AUD/JPY rose 0.29% to 88.98.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.15% at 94.59.