Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.54%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment , Financials and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.54%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Vocus Fpo (AX: VOC ), which rose 9.68% or 0.300 points to trade at 3.400 at the close. TPG Telecom Ltd (AX: TPM ) added 6.91% or 0.380 points to end at 5.880 and Brambles Ltd (AX: BXB ) was up 6.15% or 0.590 points to 10.190 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Independence Group NL (AX: IGO ), which lost 7.58% or 0.270 points to trade at 3.290 in late trade. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX: EVN ) declined 4.20% or 0.105 points to end at 2.395 and Syrah Res F (AX: SYR ) shed 4.13% or 0.100 points to 2.320.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 656 to 403 and 401 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 1.09% to 13.658.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.59% or 7.60 to $1286.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.23% or 0.12 to hit $52.29 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.29% or 0.16 to trade at $54.73 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.52% to 0.7521, while AUD/JPY fell 0.29% to 81.73.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 99.54.