Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.41%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the IT, Utilities and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.41%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Evolution Mining Ltd (ASX:EVN), which rose 6.82% or 0.32 points to trade at 5.01 at the close. Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL) added 6.67% or 0.16 points to end at 2.56 and Bank Of Queensland Ltd. (ASX:BOQ) was up 6.54% or 0.41 points to 6.68 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which lost 5.50% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.38 in late trade. Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) declined 5.36% or 0.38 points to end at 6.71 and Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) shed 5.04% or 0.69 points to 13.00.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 652 to 421 and 481 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 1.08% to 12.04.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.16% or 4.20 to $2,683.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.27% or 0.19 to hit $70.77 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.15 to trade at $74.40 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.13% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 99.91.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 103.03.