Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Utilities and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (AX:CTD), which rose 14.69% or 3.690 points to trade at 28.810 at the close. Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX:EHL) added 13.62% or 0.290 points to end at 2.420 and Bingo Industries Ltd (AX:BIN) was up 12.35% or 0.150 points to 1.365 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pact Group Holdings Ltd (AX:PGH), which lost 17.04% or 0.530 points to trade at 2.580 in late trade. Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (AX:MMS) declined 12.77% or 1.860 points to end at 12.700 and Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) shed 10.09% or 2.360 points to 21.030.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 595 to 547 and 355 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 1.72% to 12.413.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.05% or 0.65 to $1345.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.14% or 0.08 to hit $56.53 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.09% or 0.06 to trade at $66.39 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.03% to 0.7160, while AUD/JPY rose 0.20% to 79.39.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 96.407.