Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Resources, Metals & Mining and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.20%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sirtex Medical Ltd (AX:SRX), which rose 9.65% or 3.340 points to trade at 37.940 at the close. Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) added 6.02% or 0.260 points to end at 4.580 and Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL) was up 5.28% or 7.790 points to 155.450 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Dicksmith Fpo (AX:DSH), which lost 33.86% or 0.430 points to trade at 0.840 in late trade. Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG) declined 6.05% or 0.095 points to end at 1.475 and G.U.D. Holdings Ltd (AX:GUD) shed 5.94% or 0.500 points to 7.920.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 497 to 479 and 147 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 3.18% to 17.969.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.42% or 4.90 to $1170.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.12% or 0.05 to hit $43.25 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.01 to trade at $46.83 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.90% to 0.7125, while AUD/JPY fell 0.94% to 85.81.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 97.01.