Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.46%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO), which rose 8.74% or 10.84 points to trade at 134.84 at the close. Meanwhile, Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU) added 8.46% or 0.23 points to end at 2.95 and Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW) was up 8.05% or 0.04 points to 0.47 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Regis Resources Ltd (ASX:RRL), which fell 7.55% or 0.16 points to trade at 1.96 at the close. Nufarm Ltd (ASX:NUF) declined 7.07% or 0.36 points to end at 4.73 and Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:NIC) was down 4.81% or 0.05 points to 0.99.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 632 to 518 and 476 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.80% to 10.76.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 1.20% or 28.75 to $2,364.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.43% or 0.33 to hit $77.24 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.32% or 0.26 to trade at $81.64 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.01% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 103.69.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 104.81.