Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, Industrials and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.47%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which rose 5.61% or 0.530 points to trade at 9.970 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) added 4.98% or 0.065 points to end at 1.370 and Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) was up 4.29% or 0.460 points to 11.180 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM), which lost 8.86% or 0.520 points to trade at 5.350 in late trade. Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Ltd (AX:GMA) declined 8.17% or 0.215 points to end at 2.415 and Magellan Financial Group Ltd (AX:MFG) shed 6.07% or 1.440 points to 22.290.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 673 to 515 and 367 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 6.75% to 12.693.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.44% or 5.50 to $1259.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.32% or 0.24 to hit $74.38 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.31% or 0.24 to trade at $78.00 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.7400, while AUD/JPY rose 0.04% to 81.70.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 94.26.