Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Gold and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.13%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Steadfast F (AX:SDF), which rose 3.75% or 0.090 points to trade at 2.490 at the close. Bega Cheese Ltd (AX:BGA) added 2.92% or 0.170 points to end at 6.000 and Breville Group Ltd (AX:BRG) was up 2.66% or 0.260 points to 10.020 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Crown Ltd (AX:CWN), which lost 7.82% or 0.990 points to trade at 11.670 in late trade. Ardent Leisure Group (AX:AAD) declined 6.10% or 0.100 points to end at 1.540 and Spotless Fp (AX:SPO) shed 6.10% or 0.050 points to 0.770.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 693 to 469 and 310 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 3.60% to 12.844.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.82% or 10.25 to $1243.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.11% or 0.06 to hit $54.07 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.11 to trade at $56.62 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.03% to 0.7654, while AUD/JPY rose 0.66% to 86.92.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.28% at 101.61.