Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, Real Estate Investment and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.57%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (AX:QBE), which rose 3.40% or 0.320 points to trade at 9.740 at the close. Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR) added 2.76% or 0.090 points to end at 3.350 and Computershare Ltd. (AX:CPU) was up 2.20% or 0.230 points to 10.700 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Syrah Res F (AX:SYR), which lost 22.81% or 0.990 points to trade at 3.350 in late trade. Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) declined 10.02% or 0.450 points to end at 4.040 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) shed 8.63% or 0.120 points to 1.270.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 705 to 382 and 250 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 6.72% to 14.533.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.44% or 5.55 to $1275.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.97% or 0.47 to hit $49.16 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.88% or 0.45 to trade at $51.32 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.08% to 0.7626, while AUD/JPY rose 0.06% to 78.47.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.07% at 96.03.