Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.12%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.12%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (AX: SBM ), which rose 8.09% or 0.155 points to trade at 2.070 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (AX: MIN ) added 5.69% or 0.320 points to end at 5.940 and Regis Resources Ltd (AX: RRL ) was up 4.62% or 0.110 points to 2.490 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Select Harvests Ltd (AX: SHV ), which lost 8.66% or 0.400 points to trade at 4.220 in late trade. Sims Metal Management Ltd (AX: SGM ) declined 3.47% or 0.310 points to end at 8.630 and APN News & Media Ltd (AX: APN ) shed 3.08% or 0.020 points to 0.630.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 448 to 446 and 311 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 4.60% to 17.019.

In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.14% or 1.70 to $1239.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.07% or 0.41 to hit $38.69 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.80% or 0.32 to trade at $40.17 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.12% to 0.7636, while AUD/JPY fell 0.23% to 85.75.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 95.11.