Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.94% to hit a new 1-month low.
The best performers 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. Meanwhile, 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.
The worst performers of the session were Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV), which fell 4.75% or 0.330 points to trade at 6.620 at the close. Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR) declined 3.74% or 0.200 points to end at 5.150 and OZ Minerals Ltd (AX:OZL) was down 3.69% or 0.205 points to 5.355.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 602 to 433 and 327 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.76% to 20.289 a new 3-months high.
Gold for August delivery was up 0.06% or 0.75 to $1288.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 1.30% or 0.63 to hit $47.86 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 1.30% or 0.65 to trade at $49.18 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.19% to 0.7373, while AUD/JPY rose 0.28% to 78.29.
The US Dollar Index was unchanged 0.00% at 95.03.