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 lost 0.31%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Infigen Energy (AX:IFN), which rose 5.17% or 0.045 points to trade at 0.915 at the close. Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK) added 4.53% or 0.150 points to end at 3.460 and Genworth Fp (AX:GMA) was up 3.74% or 0.110 points to 3.050 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Monadelphous Group Ltd (AX:MND), which lost 6.67% or 0.760 points to trade at 10.630 in late trade. Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) declined 5.52% or 0.250 points to end at 4.280 and Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) shed 5.36% or 0.170 points to 3.000.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 558 to 498 and 306 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 1.74% to 12.536.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.10% or 1.25 to $1192.05 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.57% or 0.26 to hit $45.49 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.70% or 0.33 to trade at $47.65 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.08% to 0.7477, while AUD/JPY rose 0.14% to 84.23.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.16% at 101.14.