Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.00%

Investing.com – Australia equities were higher at the close on Wednesday, as gains in the Consumer Staples, Financials and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares higher.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.00%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 13.88% or 0.29 points to trade at 2.38 at the close. Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:PRU) added 5.71% or 0.15 points to end at 2.68 and Resmed Inc DRC (ASX:RMD) was up 5.00% or 1.68 points to 35.26 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Tabcorp Holdings Ltd (ASX:TAH), which lost 16.37% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.47 in late trade. EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) declined 7.74% or 0.06 points to end at 0.72 and Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SGR) shed 5.15% or 0.03 points to 0.46.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 634 to 500 and 413 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 0.81% to 11.12 a new 1-month low.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.38% or 9.70 to $2,543.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.11% or 0.08 to hit $75.61 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.07 to trade at $78.73 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.07% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.34% to 98.11.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.37% at 100.82.