Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.09%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Greencross Ltd (AX:GXL), which rose 4.28% or 0.280 points to trade at 6.820 at the close. Shopping Centres Australasia Group (AX:SCP) added 3.24% or 0.070 points to end at 2.230 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) was up 2.68% or 0.020 points to 0.765 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ozforex Grp (AX:OFX), which lost 7.50% or 0.143 points to trade at 1.758 in late trade. Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) declined 4.37% or 0.380 points to end at 8.320 and Bapcor Ltd (AX:BAP) shed 3.62% or 0.215 points to 5.725.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 579 to 431 and 343 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 3.99% to 14.084.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.16% or 2.05 to $1257.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.32% or 0.16 to hit $50.95 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.42% or 0.22 to trade at $52.63 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.41% to 0.7571, while AUD/JPY rose 0.58% to 78.45.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 97.66.