Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.01%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.01% to hit a new all time high.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB), which rose 4.43% or 0.12 points to trade at 2.83 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 4.04% or 0.07 points to end at 1.68 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) was up 3.08% or 0.02 points to 0.67 in late trade.

Biggest losers included EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which lost 4.08% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.71 in late trade. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) declined 3.51% or 0.01 points to end at 0.28 and Resmed Inc DRC (ASX:RMD) shed 3.12% or 1.16 points to 36.19.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 555 to 523 and 415 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 2.35% to 11.81.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.08% or 2.20 to $2,594.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.71% or 0.50 to hit $69.46 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.73% or 0.54 to trade at $73.16 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.17% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.41% to 95.79.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 100.54.