Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.09%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the IT , Metals & Mining and Financials sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.09%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Eclipx Group Ltd (AX: ECX ), which rose 22.81% or 0.130 points to trade at 0.700 at the close. Nufarm Ltd (AX: NUF ) added 4.77% or 0.220 points to end at 4.830 and Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (AX: NEC ) was up 4.06% or 0.07 points to 1.67 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Tassal Group Ltd (AX: TGR ), which lost 6.45% or 0.320 points to trade at 4.640 in late trade. Alumina Ltd (AX: AWC ) declined 4.69% or 0.120 points to end at 2.440 and St Barbara Ltd (AX: SBM ) shed 4.26% or 0.150 points to 3.370.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 568 to 535 and 366 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 2.32% to 12.274.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.03% or 0.35 to $1321.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.15% or 0.09 to hit $60.03 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.22% or 0.15 to trade at $67.58 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.42% to 0.7104, while AUD/JPY fell 0.42% to 78.59.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.18% at 96.400.