Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Healthcare, Financials and IT sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.85%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM), which rose 5.43% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.680 at the close. Meanwhile, Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) added 3.64% or 0.080 points to end at 2.280 and M2 Telecommunications Group Ltd (ASX:MTU) was up 3.07% or 0.330 points to 11.070 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY), which fell 8.70% or 0.040 points to trade at 0.420 at the close. Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) declined 7.35% or 0.180 points to end at 2.270 and Sims Metal Management Ltd (ASX:SGM) was down 6.75% or 0.780 points to 10.770.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 593 to 425 and 180 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 11.02% to 16.158.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.41% or 5.00 to $1208.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.25% or 0.14 to hit $56.91 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.13% or 0.09 to trade at $64.56 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.26% to 0.8002, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 95.14.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.06% at 96.13.