Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Energy and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.01%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which rose 5.26% or 0.060 points to trade at 1.200 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) added 3.40% or 0.040 points to end at 1.215 and Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL) was up 2.45% or 0.110 points to 4.600 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Monadelphous Group Ltd (AX:MND), which lost 6.62% or 1.040 points to trade at 14.680 in late trade. Estia Health Ltd (AX:EHE) declined 5.14% or 0.180 points to end at 3.320 and Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX:PTM) shed 4.19% or 0.260 points to 5.950.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 740 to 456 and 376 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 10.58% to 15.664.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.01% or 0.10 to $1335.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April fell 0.81% or 0.51 to hit $62.09 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.82% or 0.54 to trade at $65.25 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.37% to 0.7800, while AUD/JPY fell 0.87% to 82.37.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 89.47.