Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.19%

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 declined 0.19%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA), which rose 13.11% or 0.78 points to trade at 6.73 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) added 5.72% or 2.24 points to end at 41.40 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) was up 4.67% or 0.84 points to 18.84 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Premier Investments Ltd (ASX:PMV), which lost 9.89% or 3.33 points to trade at 30.34 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 9.20% or 0.19 points to end at 1.83 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) shed 5.33% or 0.34 points to 6.04.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 557 to 512 and 470 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 2.12% to 11.94.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.16% or 4.30 to $2,681.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.35% or 0.25 to hit $71.31 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.26% or 0.19 to trade at $74.28 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.17% to 0.69, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 98.70.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.15% at 100.01.