Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Financials, IT and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.11% to hit a new 1-month low.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN), which rose 6.29% or 0.595 points to trade at 10.055 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 5.80% or 0.145 points to end at 2.645 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) was up 5.24% or 0.150 points to 3.010 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which fell 7.58% or 0.038 points to trade at 0.458 at the close. Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) declined 5.20% or 0.295 points to end at 5.375 and Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL) was down 4.93% or 0.068 points to 1.302.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 674 to 403 and 370 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 4.36% to 12.464.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.52% or 6.48 to $1242.88 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.84% or 0.41 to hit $48.25 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.74% or 0.38 to trade at $51.27 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.04% to 0.7429, while AUD/JPY fell 0.55% to 83.55.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.27% at 97.84.