Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.68%
Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the IT , Consumer Discretionary and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.68%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Graincorp Ltd (AX: GNC ), which rose 8.00% or 0.650 points to trade at 8.770 at the close. Metcash Ltd (AX: MTS ) added 4.19% or 0.078 points to end at 1.927 and Worleyparsons Ltd (AX: WOR ) was up 3.78% or 0.225 points to 6.175 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ioof Holdings Ltd (AX: IFL ), which lost 7.44% or 0.660 points to trade at 8.210 in late trade. Seven West Media Ltd (AX: SWM ) declined 5.93% or 0.070 points to end at 1.110 and Technology One Ltd (AX: TNE ) shed 5.33% or 0.280 points to 4.970.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 596 to 408 and 329 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 0.81% to 17.661.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.18% or 2.25 to $1274.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.31% or 0.15 to hit $48.46 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.26% or 0.13 to trade at $49.41 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.60% to 0.7282, while AUD/JPY fell 0.49% to 79.56.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.22% at 94.76.
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