Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, IT and Utilities sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.10%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM), which rose 3.29% or 0.04 points to trade at 1.26 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC) added 2.66% or 0.17 points to end at 6.57 and Inghams Group Ltd (ASX:ING) was up 2.56% or 0.09 points to 3.61 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which fell 10.53% or 0.08 points to trade at 0.68 at the close. South32 Ltd (ASX:S32) declined 4.33% or 0.14 points to end at 2.98 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) was down 4.07% or 0.06 points to 1.29.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 631 to 542 and 346 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.62% to 10.38 a new 1-month low.
Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.04% or 0.80 to $2,160.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.28% or 0.23 to hit $82.50 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.22% or 0.19 to trade at $87.19 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.02% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY rose 0.38% to 98.91.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 103.55.