Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Real Estate Investment, Consumer Staples and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.06%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (AX:NEC), which rose 5.74% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.290 at the close. Isentia Group Ltd (AX:ISD) added 4.71% or 0.080 points to end at 1.780 and Tassal Group Ltd (AX:TGR) was up 3.43% or 0.150 points to 4.520 in late trade.
Biggest losers included G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which lost 3.99% or 0.140 points to trade at 3.370 in late trade. Vocus Group Ltd (AX:VOC) declined 3.38% or 0.100 points to end at 2.860 and South32 Ltd (AX:S32) shed 2.95% or 0.080 points to 2.630.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 569 to 488 and 382 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 6.23% to 11.899.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.05% or 0.63 to $1261.47 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.72% or 0.36 to hit $49.30 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.63% or 0.33 to trade at $51.91 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.7450, while AUD/JPY fell 0.14% to 82.63.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.16% at 97.38.