Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.33%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Duluxgroup Ltd (AX:DLX), which rose 27.25% or 2.090 points to trade at 9.760 at the close. Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL) added 6.46% or 5.70 points to end at 94.00 and Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR) was up 6.11% or 0.070 points to 1.215 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (AX:FMG), which lost 8.64% or 0.700 points to trade at 7.400 in late trade. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) declined 5.89% or 1.460 points to end at 23.340 and Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) shed 5.81% or 1.350 points to 21.900.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 626 to 544 and 357 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 6.53% to 11.122.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.24% or 3.05 to $1280.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.62% or 0.40 to hit $64.45 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.33% or 0.24 to trade at $71.96 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.24% to 0.7192, while AUD/JPY rose 0.26% to 80.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 96.588.