Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.03%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Telecoms Services , Industrials and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.03%.

The biggest gainers 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. Link Administration Holdings Ltd (AX: LNK ) added 3.91% or 0.280 points to end at 7.440 and Seven West Media Ltd (AX: SWM ) was up 3.66% or 0.030 points to 0.850 in late trade.

Biggest losers included oOh!Media Ltd (AX: OML ), which lost 6.11% or 0.313 points to trade at 4.810 in late trade. Metcash Ltd (AX: MTS ) declined 5.36% or 0.150 points to end at 2.650 and Aurizon Holdings Ltd (AX: AZJ ) shed 3.17% or 0.140 points to 4.280.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 722 to 561 and 462 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.54% to 12.425.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.24% or 3.00 to $1256.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, 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 0.38% or 0.29 to trade at $76.43 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.22% to 0.7376, while AUD/JPY fell 0.34% to 81.08.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 94.31.