Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.57%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Energy , Telecoms Services and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.57%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX: BAL ), which rose 3.83% or 0.280 points to trade at 7.590 at the close. Bravura Solutions Ltd (AX: BVS ) added 2.70% or 0.100 points to end at 3.800 and Blackmores Ltd (AX: BKL ) was up 2.67% or 3.26 points to 125.26 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Speedcast International Ltd (AX: SDA ), which lost 5.50% or 0.160 points to trade at 2.750 in late trade. Infigen Energy Ltd (AX: IFN ) declined 5.38% or 0.025 points to end at 0.440 and Ausdrill Ltd (AX: ASL ) shed 5.04% or 0.060 points to 1.130.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 530 to 408 and 290 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 8.28% to 19.414.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.55% or 7.05 to $1288.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 2.25% or 1.03 to hit $44.77 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 2.01% or 1.09 to trade at $53.03 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.40% to 0.7026, while AUD/JPY fell 0.74% to 76.80.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.18% at 95.518.