Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Materials, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.54%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were APA Group (AX:APA), which rose 20.80% or 1.720 points to trade at 9.990 at the close. Gateway Lifestyle Group (AX:GTY) added 15.03% or 0.275 points to end at 2.105 and Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS) was up 3.33% or 0.090 points to 2.790 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which lost 6.40% or 1.120 points to trade at 16.380 in late trade. Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) declined 5.31% or 0.870 points to end at 15.500 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) shed 4.46% or 0.035 points to 0.750.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 734 to 495 and 435 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 up 11.42% to 12.175.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.02% or 0.20 to $1299.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.50% or 0.33 to hit $66.03 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.28% or 0.21 to trade at $75.67 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.01% to 0.7573, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 83.75.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 93.84.