Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.71%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.71% to hit a new 3-month high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Res F (AX: SYR ), which rose 14.77% or 0.390 points to trade at 3.030 at the close. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ) added 12.50% or 0.058 points to end at 0.517 and APN Outdoor Group Ltd (AX: APO ) was up 8.70% or 0.470 points to 5.870 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX: SKT ), which lost 10.68% or 0.490 points to trade at 4.100 in late trade. A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX: A2M ) declined 5.56% or 0.120 points to end at 2.040 and Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX: WHC ) shed 4.45% or 0.130 points to 2.790.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 607 to 434 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 up 2.77% to 12.579.

In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.26% or 3.05 to $1162.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 1.28% or 0.68 to hit $52.30 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 1.20% or 0.67 to trade at $55.05 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7490, while AUD/JPY fell 0.08% to 86.31.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 101.02.