Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.49%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Gold , Consumer Staples and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.49%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nufarm Ltd (ASX: NUF ), which rose 7.38% or 0.310 points to trade at 4.510 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM ) added 4.35% or 0.130 points to end at 3.120 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX: SAR ) was up 3.56% or 0.130 points to 3.780 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (ASX: SDA ), which lost 16.50% or 0.340 points to trade at 1.720 in late trade. Beach Energy Ltd (ASX: BPT ) declined 6.37% or 0.130 points to end at 1.910 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS ) shed 6.31% or 0.035 points to 0.520.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 694 to 508 and 323 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 4.09% to 11.409 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 1.51% or 21.20 to $1429.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.48% or 0.27 to hit $56.52 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.43% or 0.27 to trade at $62.67 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.00% to 0.6995, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 75.27.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 96.347.