Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, Materials and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.85%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Isentia Group Ltd (AX:ISD), which rose 13.36% or 0.195 points to trade at 1.655 at the close. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) added 6.80% or 0.215 points to end at 3.375 and Nine Ent Fpo (AX:NEC) was up 5.56% or 0.070 points to 1.330 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Vocus Fpo (AX:VOC), which lost 25.97% or 0.870 points to trade at 2.480 in late trade. Pact Group Holdings Ltd (AX:PGH) declined 10.09% or 0.745 points to end at 6.635 and G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) shed 7.77% or 0.290 points to 3.440.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 668 to 456 and 364 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 4.13% to 11.882.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.01% or 0.12 to $1256.88 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.76% or 0.36 to hit $48.02 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.91% or 0.46 to trade at $50.92 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.44% to 0.7502, while AUD/JPY fell 0.31% to 84.12.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.11% at 98.89.