Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the IT, Financials and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.78%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Trade Me Group Ltd (AX:TME), which rose 3.51% or 0.200 points to trade at 5.900 at the close. APA Group (AX:APA) added 3.45% or 0.300 points to end at 9.000 and Coles Group Ltd (AX:COL) was up 2.87% or 0.33 points to 11.82 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC), which lost 22.41% or 0.475 points to trade at 1.645 in late trade. Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (AX:NEC) declined 7.95% or 0.14 points to end at 1.62 and Ausdrill Ltd (AX:ASL) shed 7.80% or 0.110 points to 1.300.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 799 to 348 and 332 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 5.73% to 15.676.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.49% or 6.10 to $1240.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 1.50% or 0.80 to hit $52.45 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 1.66% or 1.03 to trade at $61.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.67% to 0.7290, while AUD/JPY fell 0.40% to 82.42.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.22% at 97.115.