Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, Telecoms Services and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which rose 5.63% or 0.890 points to trade at 16.700 at the close. Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) added 5.23% or 0.040 points to end at 0.805 and Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL) was up 5.00% or 0.060 points to 1.260 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which lost 5.74% or 0.340 points to trade at 5.580 in late trade. Rea Group Ltd (AX:REA) declined 3.98% or 3.620 points to end at 87.290 and Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS) shed 3.32% or 0.100 points to 2.910.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 756 to 466 and 422 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 15.43% to 13.201.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.17% or 2.20 to $1296.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $66.72 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.15% or 0.11 to trade at $75.38 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.29% to 0.7527, while AUD/JPY rose 0.31% to 81.87.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.37% at 94.46.