Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Industrials and Telecoms Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.60%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX:IPL), which rose 5.97% or 0.115 points to trade at 2.040 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 5.23% or 0.180 points to end at 3.620 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) was up 4.37% or 0.180 points to 4.300 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL), which fell 4.89% or 0.23 points to trade at 4.47 at the close. Austal Ltd (ASX:ASB) declined 3.90% or 0.13 points to end at 3.20 and Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) was down 3.87% or 0.32 points to 7.94.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 657 to 549 and 350 ended unchanged.
Shares in Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) rose to 5-year highs; up 4.37% or 0.180 to 4.300. Shares in Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) fell to 3-years lows; losing 3.87% or 0.32 to 7.94.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.73% to 19.290.
Gold Futures for October delivery was up 1.33% or 26.75 to $2035.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.12% or 0.05 to hit $41.75 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.09 to trade at $44.52 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.38% to 0.7187, while AUD/JPY rose 0.33% to 75.93.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.30% at 93.102.