Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.13%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.13%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 6.25% or 0.17 points to trade at 2.89 at the close. Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX:PME) added 4.01% or 7.20 points to end at 186.63 and APA Group (ASX:APA) was up 3.11% or 0.23 points to 7.63 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which lost 7.07% or 3.62 points to trade at 47.61 in late trade. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) declined 5.33% or 0.16 points to end at 2.84 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) shed 4.78% or 0.07 points to 1.39.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 523 to 499 and 379 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 2.83% to 11.89.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.20% or 5.35 to $2,640.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.80% or 0.59 to hit $74.16 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.88% or 0.68 to trade at $77.86 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.02% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.16% to 100.16.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 102.33.