Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, Healthcare and Metals & Mining sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.09%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (ASX:SXL), which rose 27.03% or 0.050 points to trade at 0.235 at the close. Meanwhile, Virgin Money UK PLC (ASX:VUK) added 15.51% or 0.24 points to end at 1.82 and Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (ASX:MMS) was up 9.72% or 0.77 points to 8.69 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (ASX:SAR), which fell 11.19% or 0.63 points to trade at 5.00 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) declined 10.92% or 1.650 points to end at 13.460 and Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:GOR) was down 9.12% or 0.165 points to 1.645.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 638 to 575 and 337 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 8.40% to 22.477.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.56% or 9.50 to $1696.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 1.92% or 0.66 to hit $33.69 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 1.88% or 0.68 to trade at $35.49 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.19% to 0.6639, while AUD/JPY fell 0.14% to 71.41.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.30% at 99.198.