Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.34%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT , Industrials and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.34% to hit a new 3-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Viva Energy Group Ltd (AX: VEA ), which rose 13.77% or 0.27 points to trade at 2.19 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX: BAL ) added 5.34% or 0.460 points to end at 9.080 and Bravura Solutions Ltd (AX: BVS ) was up 5.16% or 0.220 points to 4.480 in late trade.

Biggest losers included oOh!Media Ltd (AX: OML ), which lost 4.55% or 0.170 points to trade at 3.570 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX: NST ) declined 3.76% or 0.330 points to end at 8.450 and Costa Group Holdings Ltd (AX: CGC ) shed 3.71% or 0.200 points to 5.190.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 597 to 510 and 346 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 3.37% to 12.810.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.09% or 1.15 to $1318.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.13% or 0.07 to hit $53.73 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.11% or 0.07 to trade at $62.05 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 1.18% to 0.7148, while AUD/JPY fell 1.36% to 78.47.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 95.865.