Australia shares higher at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 up 0.83%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 added 0.83%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 6.61% or 0.20 points to trade at 3.15 at the close. Bluescope Steel Ltd (ASX:BSL) added 5.98% or 1.23 points to end at 21.79 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was up 5.85% or 0.12 points to 2.17 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX:DHG), which lost 6.09% or 0.19 points to trade at 2.86 in late trade. IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) declined 4.85% or 0.26 points to end at 5.10 and Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SKC) shed 4.28% or 0.06 points to 1.23.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 552 to 463 and 418 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 13.50% to 11.82.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.12% or 3.20 to $2,746.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 1.35% or 0.97 to hit $71.02 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract fell 1.42% or 1.07 to trade at $74.46 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 1.30% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.15% to 100.51.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 1.28% at 104.65.