Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Telecoms Services, Financials and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.33%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM), which rose 11.17% or 0.545 points to trade at 5.425 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 3.54% or 0.080 points to end at 2.340 and Flexigroup Ltd (AX:FXL) was up 3.46% or 0.075 points to 2.245 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM), which lost 7.10% or 0.055 points to trade at 0.720 in late trade. Santos Ltd (AX:STO) declined 5.65% or 0.210 points to end at 3.510 and CYBG PLC (AX:CYB) shed 5.29% or 0.245 points to 4.385.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 591 to 460 and 343 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 9.17% to 16.704.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.09% or 1.25 to $1324.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.49% or 0.22 to hit $45.12 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.34% or 0.16 to trade at $47.26 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.20% to 0.7480, while AUD/JPY rose 0.55% to 77.00.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.01% at 95.55.