Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT, Financials and Energy sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.15%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC), which rose 10.22% or 0.070 points to trade at 0.755 at the close. M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) added 4.66% or 0.065 points to end at 1.460 and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG) was up 4.20% or 0.025 points to 0.620 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ioof Holdings Ltd (AX:IFL), which lost 5.32% or 0.470 points to trade at 8.360 in late trade. Seven Group Holdings Ltd (AX:SVW) declined 5.14% or 0.310 points to end at 5.720 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG) shed 4.33% or 0.110 points to 2.430.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 467 to 432 and 294 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 6.30% to 16.603 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.33% or 4.10 to $1235.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 1.43% or 0.52 to hit $36.86 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.90% or 0.35 to trade at $39.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.00% to 0.7459, while AUD/JPY rose 0.21% to 84.56.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.18% at 96.83.