Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, Utilities and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.35%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Seven Group Holdings Ltd (AX:SVW), which rose 7.65% or 0.510 points to trade at 7.180 at the close. Genworth Fp (AX:GMA) added 6.90% or 0.200 points to end at 3.100 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) was up 5.86% or 0.180 points to 3.250 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM), which lost 10.06% or 0.085 points to trade at 0.760 in late trade. Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR) declined 6.07% or 0.210 points to end at 3.250 and Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV) shed 5.98% or 0.450 points to 7.070.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 720 to 388 and 331 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 9.05% to 16.240.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.57% or 7.85 to $1364.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 4.07% or 1.61 to hit $41.12 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 3.85% or 1.61 to trade at $43.41 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.34% to 0.7585, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 76.78.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.52% at 95.51.