Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Industrials and Gold sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.03%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API), which rose 4.46% or 0.070 points to trade at 1.640 at the close. Meanwhile, Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) added 3.66% or 0.060 points to end at 1.700 and Link Administration Holdings Ltd (AX:LNK) was up 3.63% or 0.260 points to 7.420 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were oOh!Media Ltd (AX:OML), which fell 5.91% or 0.303 points to trade at 4.820 at the close. Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS) declined 5.36% or 0.150 points to end at 2.650 and Aurizon Holdings Ltd (AX:AZJ) was down 3.17% or 0.140 points to 4.280.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 723 to 558 and 466 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.54% to 12.425.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.25% or 3.10 to $1256.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.40% or 0.28 to hit $70.81 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.37% or 0.28 to trade at $76.42 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.22% to 0.7376, while AUD/JPY fell 0.38% to 81.05.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 94.31.