Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the S&P/ASX 200 Utilities, S&P/ASX 200 Energy and S&P/ASX 200 Financials sectors led shares higher.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.01% to hit a new all time high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which rose 4.43% or 0.12 points to trade at 2.83 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 4.04% or 0.07 points to end at 1.68 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) was up 3.08% or 0.02 points to 0.67 in late trade.
Biggest losers included EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which fell 4.08% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.71 in late trade. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) declined 3.51% or 0.01 points to end at 0.28 and Resmed Inc DRC (ASX:RMD) down 3.12% or 1.16 points to 36.19.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones by 555 to 523 and 415 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
Shares in Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) rose to 3-year highs; gaining 4.43% or 0.12 to 2.83. Shares in Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) rose to 52-week highs; up 4.04% or 0.07 to 1.68.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.35% to 11.81.
Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.08% or 2.20 to $2,594.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.73% or 0.51 to hit $69.45 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.75% or 0.55 to trade at $73.15 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.16% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.41% to 95.79.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 100.54.