Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.43%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining , Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.43%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (AX: CLW ), which rose 4.51% or 0.190 points to trade at 4.400 at the close. Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (AX: CTD ) added 4.05% or 0.790 points to end at 20.300 and Myob Group Ltd (AX: MYO ) was up 2.56% or 0.090 points to 3.610 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX: ORE ), which lost 5.37% or 0.320 points to trade at 5.640 in late trade. Western Areas Ltd (AX: WSA ) declined 5.26% or 0.160 points to end at 2.880 and Syrah Resources Ltd (AX: SYR ) shed 5.23% or 0.230 points to 4.170.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 746 to 476 and 337 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 up 4.23% to 12.612.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.32% or 4.00 to $1268.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.42% or 0.24 to hit $57.38 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.38% or 0.24 to trade at $62.62 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.39% to 0.7578, while AUD/JPY fell 0.77% to 85.00.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 93.18.