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 Consumer Staples, Gold and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares higher.

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

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN), which rose 3.44% or 0.26 points to trade at 7.82 at the close. Steadfast Group Ltd (ASX:SDF) added 2.78% or 0.15 points to end at 5.55 and JB Hi-Fi Ltd (ASX:JBH) was up 2.60% or 2.05 points to 80.87 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which lost 4.96% or 1.88 points to trade at 35.99 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 4.43% or 0.09 points to end at 1.94 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) shed 4.00% or 0.04 points to 0.97.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 552 to 545 and 454 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 3.80% to 12.83 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.23% or 6.35 to $2,766.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.11% or 0.08 to hit $71.66 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.09% or 0.07 to trade at $75.97 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.06% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.58% to 101.55.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 103.97.