Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Financials and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.85%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM), which rose 5.43% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.680 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) added 3.64% or 0.080 points to end at 2.280 and M2 Telecommunications Group Ltd (ASX:MTU) was up 3.07% or 0.330 points to 11.070 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY), which lost 8.70% or 0.040 points to trade at 0.420 in late trade. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) declined 7.35% or 0.180 points to end at 2.270 and Sims Metal Management Ltd (ASX:SGM) shed 6.75% or 0.780 points to 10.770.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 593 to 425 and 180 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 11.02% to 16.158.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.39% or 4.70 to $1209.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.22% or 0.12 to hit $56.94 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.13% or 0.09 to trade at $64.56 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.24% to 0.8003, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 95.14.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 96.13.