Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, Healthcare and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.93% to hit a new 3-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN), which rose 4.78% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.190 at the close. Independence Group NL (ASX:IGO) added 4.37% or 0.200 points to end at 4.780 and Sirius Resources NL (ASX:SIR) was up 3.56% or 0.130 points to 3.780 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Virtus Health Ltd (ASX:VRT), which lost 6.87% or 0.420 points to trade at 5.690 in late trade. Retail Food Group Ltd (ASX:RFG) declined 6.45% or 0.410 points to end at 5.950 and Syrah Res F (ASX:SYR) shed 5.75% or 0.250 points to 4.100.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 614 to 397 and 201 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 0.80% to 17.197.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was down 0.26% or 3.10 to $1191.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.83% or 0.51 to hit $60.75 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.53% or 0.35 to trade at $65.14 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.40% to 0.7803, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 96.73.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.17% at 95.83.