Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Utilities, Energy and Telecoms Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.21%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Computershare Ltd. (AX:CPU), which rose 8.83% or 0.790 points to trade at 9.740 at the close. Meanwhile, Cochlear Ltd (AX:COH) added 6.46% or 8.080 points to end at 133.080 and Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB) was up 5.79% or 0.070 points to 1.280 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Monadelphous Group Ltd (AX:MND), which fell 7.43% or 0.860 points to trade at 10.720 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) declined 6.13% or 0.115 points to end at 1.760 and Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ) was down 4.27% or 0.043 points to 0.953.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 550 to 521 and 309 ended unchanged.
Shares in Cochlear Ltd (AX:COH) rose to all time highs; rising 6.46% or 8.080 to 133.080.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.01% to 12.707 a new 52-week low.
Gold for December delivery was up 0.80% or 10.75 to $1357.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.33% or 0.14 to hit $42.63 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.24% or 0.11 to trade at $44.87 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.27% to 0.7693, while AUD/JPY fell 0.26% to 77.97.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.32% at 95.75.