Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Gold and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.94% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG), which rose 14.86% or 0.110 points to trade at 0.850 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) added 11.26% or 0.125 points to end at 1.235 and Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) was up 3.67% or 0.385 points to 10.885 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV), which lost 4.75% or 0.330 points to trade at 6.620 in late trade. Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR) declined 3.64% or 0.195 points to end at 5.155 and OZ Minerals Ltd (AX:OZL) shed 3.60% or 0.200 points to 5.360.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 600 to 435 and 327 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 1.90% to 20.317 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.07% or 0.85 to $1288.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 1.36% or 0.66 to hit $47.83 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.34% or 0.67 to trade at $49.16 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.22% to 0.7375, while AUD/JPY rose 0.26% to 78.27.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 95.02.