Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, Utilities and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 2.30% to hit a new 3-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sundance Energy Australia Ltd (ASX:SEA), which rose 7.32% or 0.045 points to trade at 0.660 at the close. AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) added 7.17% or 0.105 points to end at 1.570 and Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN) was up 6.76% or 0.070 points to 1.105 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Rea Group Ltd (ASX:REA), which lost 10.32% or 4.960 points to trade at 43.120 in late trade. Greencross Ltd (ASX:GXL) declined 7.87% or 0.560 points to end at 6.560 and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG) shed 6.82% or 0.320 points to 4.370.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 642 to 356 and 186 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 14.58% to 19.284 a new 52-week high.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was up 0.18% or 2.10 to $1195.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 1.87% or 1.13 to hit $61.53 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 1.44% or 0.97 to trade at $68.50 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.42% to 0.7976, while AUD/JPY rose 0.28% to 95.45.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.51% at 94.78.