Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Real Estate Investment and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.66%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 9.06% or 0.290 points to trade at 3.490 at the close. Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR) added 5.79% or 0.190 points to end at 3.470 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 5.59% or 0.330 points to 6.230 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which lost 4.80% or 0.055 points to trade at 1.090 in late trade. Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) declined 4.27% or 0.025 points to end at 0.560 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) shed 3.65% or 0.035 points to 0.925.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 694 to 494 and 369 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 2.76% to 13.124.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.19% or 2.50 to $1329.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.10% or 0.06 to hit $60.77 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.08% or 0.05 to trade at $64.59 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.7875, while AUD/JPY rose 0.08% to 83.83.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 89.55.