Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 1.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG), which rose 10.64% or 0.050 points to trade at 0.520 at the close. Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) added 10.11% or 0.570 points to end at 6.210 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) was up 9.16% or 0.060 points to 0.715 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST), which lost 5.69% or 0.210 points to trade at 3.480 in late trade. St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) declined 3.63% or 0.085 points to end at 2.255 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) shed 2.90% or 0.050 points to 1.675.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 586 to 423 and 331 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 3.57% to 17.360.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.82% or 10.40 to $1250.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.38% or 0.58 to hit $41.59 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.20% or 0.09 to trade at $44.15 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 1.05% to 0.7675, while AUD/JPY rose 1.88% to 83.54.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.23% at 94.24.