Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV), which rose 6.17% or 0.14 points to trade at 2.41 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 5.43% or 0.03 points to end at 0.49 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 4.18% or 0.12 points to 2.99 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Collins Foods Ltd (ASX:CKF), which lost 8.40% or 0.84 points to trade at 9.16 in late trade. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) declined 8.08% or 0.37 points to end at 4.21 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) shed 5.05% or 0.03 points to 0.52.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 749 to 472 and 489 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 29.37% to 7.80 a new 5-year low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.29% or 6.85 to $2,323.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.63% or 0.51 to hit $81.34 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.56% or 0.47 to trade at $84.69 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.63% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.70% to 106.89.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 105.38.