Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Materials, Metals & Mining and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.16%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 4.65% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.22 at the close. Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SGR) added 2.55% or 0.01 points to end at 0.50 and Ingenia Communities Group (ASX:INA) was up 2.53% or 0.12 points to 4.86 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Insignia Financial Ltd (ASX:IFL), which lost 6.80% or 0.17 points to trade at 2.33 in late trade. Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA) declined 4.50% or 0.09 points to end at 1.91 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) shed 3.57% or 0.07 points to 1.76.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 581 to 506 and 452 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 1.36% to 11.16.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.35% or 8.25 to $2,376.15 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.58% or 0.47 to hit $80.94 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.69% or 0.58 to trade at $84.08 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.04% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 108.84.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 104.79.