Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, IT and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.11% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN), which rose 6.29% or 0.595 points to trade at 10.055 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 5.80% or 0.145 points to end at 2.645 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) was up 5.24% or 0.150 points to 3.010 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which lost 7.58% or 0.038 points to trade at 0.458 in late trade. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) declined 5.20% or 0.295 points to end at 5.375 and Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL) shed 4.93% or 0.068 points to 1.302.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 674 to 403 and 370 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 4.36% to 12.464.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.55% or 6.85 to $1243.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.84% or 0.41 to hit $48.25 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.74% or 0.38 to trade at $51.27 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.04% to 0.7429, while AUD/JPY fell 0.55% to 83.55.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 97.84.