Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.15%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 gained 0.15%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX: SAR ), which rose 11.48% or 0.155 points to trade at 1.505 at the close. Estia Health Ltd (AX: EHE ) added 8.87% or 0.260 points to end at 3.190 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX: EVN ) was up 8.02% or 0.190 points to 2.560 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Santos Ltd (AX: STO ), which lost 4.75% or 0.210 points to trade at 4.210 in late trade. Mesoblast Ltd (AX: MSB ) declined 4.41% or 0.060 points to end at 1.300 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX: FMG ) shed 3.48% or 0.180 points to 4.990.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 605 to 478 and 331 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 2.76% to 12.847.

In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.10% or 1.30 to $1355.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.62% or 0.28 to hit $45.11 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.55% or 0.26 to trade at $47.52 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7678, while AUD/JPY fell 0.75% to 77.85.

The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 94.78.