Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Industrials and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.03%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API), which rose 4.46% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.640 at the close. Link Administration Holdings Ltd (AX:LNK) added 3.91% or 0.280 points to end at 7.440 and Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) was up 3.66% or 0.030 points to 0.850 in late trade.
Biggest losers included oOh!Media Ltd (AX:OML), which lost 6.11% or 0.313 points to trade at 4.810 in late trade. Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS) declined 5.36% or 0.150 points to end at 2.650 and Aurizon Holdings Ltd (AX:AZJ) shed 3.17% or 0.140 points to 4.280.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 722 to 560 and 466 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 2.54% to 12.425.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.24% or 3.00 to $1256.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.40% or 0.28 to hit $70.81 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.38% or 0.29 to trade at $76.43 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.22% to 0.7376, while AUD/JPY fell 0.34% to 81.08.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 94.31.