Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Energy, Healthcare and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which rose 5.24% or 0.140 points to trade at 2.810 at the close. Appen Ltd (AX:APX) added 5.10% or 1.130 points to end at 23.270 and New Hope Corporation Ltd (AX:NHC) was up 4.28% or 0.180 points to 4.390 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG), which lost 12.30% or 0.075 points to trade at 0.535 in late trade. Inghams Group Ltd (AX:ING) declined 3.87% or 0.17 points to end at 4.22 and Adelaide Brighton Ltd (AX:ABC) shed 3.62% or 0.170 points to 4.530.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 630 to 501 and 364 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 down 2.30% to 12.383.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.50% or 6.45 to $1304.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.56% or 0.32 to hit $57.19 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.28% or 0.19 to trade at $66.86 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.30% to 0.7058, while AUD/JPY fell 0.34% to 78.58.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 96.947.