Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.23%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.23%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Eclipx Group Ltd (AX: ECX ), which rose 10.69% or 0.193 points to trade at 1.992 at the close. Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (AX: TAH ) added 7.78% or 0.350 points to end at 4.850 and Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX: LYC ) was up 4.40% or 0.095 points to 2.255 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Infigen Energy (AX: IFN ), which lost 5.74% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.575 in late trade. Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (AX: MMS ) declined 4.57% or 0.735 points to end at 15.365 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX: SIG ) shed 4.33% or 0.023 points to 0.497.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 593 to 578 and 386 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 0.82% to 11.399 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.25% or 3.00 to $1221.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.16% or 0.11 to hit $69.28 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.01% or 0.01 to trade at $74.64 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.07% to 0.7426, while AUD/JPY fell 0.02% to 82.64.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.13% at 94.88.