Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.83%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.83%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were News Corp B DRC (ASX:NWS), which rose 3.27% or 1.42 points to trade at 44.87 at the close. Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX:PME) added 3.07% or 5.89 points to end at 197.52 and Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) was up 2.10% or 0.29 points to 14.11 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Woolworths Ltd (ASX:WOW), which lost 6.10% or 2.00 points to trade at 30.81 in late trade. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) declined 4.30% or 0.02 points to end at 0.44 and Ansell Ltd (ASX:ANN) shed 4.26% or 1.35 points to 30.37.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 620 to 481 and 480 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 12.52% to 13.35 a new 1-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.49% or 13.50 to $2,794.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.76% or 0.51 to hit $67.72 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.47 to trade at $71.20 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.27% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.34% to 100.28.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 104.17.