Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, IT and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.51%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Healius Ltd (ASX:HLS), which rose 8.61% or 0.12 points to trade at 1.45 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 4.35% or 0.01 points to end at 0.24 and Woodside Energy Ltd (ASX:WDS) was up 2.69% or 0.73 points to 27.82 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:NIC), which lost 7.61% or 0.07 points to trade at 0.85 in late trade. Unibail Rodamco Westfield (ASX:URW) declined 4.40% or 0.28 points to end at 6.09 and Atlas Arteria (ASX:ALX) shed 4.35% or 0.22 points to 4.84.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 727 to 412 and 480 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 unchanged 0.00% to 11.68.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.25% or 5.85 to $2,332.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.80% or 0.62 to hit $78.52 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.61% or 0.50 to trade at $82.42 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.26% to 104.08.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.35% at 104.83.