Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Financials and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.38%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC), which rose 5.02% or 0.35 points to trade at 7.32 at the close. Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) added 2.82% or 0.04 points to end at 1.27 and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) was up 2.93% or 0.17 points to 5.97 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which lost 4.86% or 0.09 points to trade at 1.76 in late trade. Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU) declined 5.45% or 0.15 points to end at 2.60 and Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) shed 4.23% or 1.55 points to 35.10.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 590 to 514 and 441 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 0.68% to 10.45.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.15% or 4.11 to $2,672.01 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.20% or 0.14 to hit $70.08 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.22% or 0.16 to trade at $73.78 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.60% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY fell 0.13% to 96.64.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 106.29.