Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, A-REITs and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.71%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV), which rose 6.17% or 0.14 points to trade at 2.41 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 5.43% or 0.03 points to end at 0.49 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 4.18% or 0.12 points to 2.99 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Collins Foods Ltd (ASX:CKF), which fell 8.40% or 0.84 points to trade at 9.16 at the close. Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) declined 8.08% or 0.37 points to end at 4.21 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) was down 5.05% or 0.03 points to 0.52.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 749 to 472 and 489 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 29.37% to 7.80 a new 5-year low.
Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.29% or 6.70 to $2,324.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.63% or 0.51 to hit $81.34 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.57% or 0.48 to trade at $84.70 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.63% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.69% to 106.88.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 105.38.