Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.74%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, IT and Financials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.74%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were AMP Ltd (ASX:AMP), which rose 11.34% or 0.11 points to trade at 1.08 at the close. Meanwhile, Downer Edi Ltd (ASX:DOW) added 11.14% or 0.48 points to end at 4.79 and Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) was up 8.75% or 1.77 points to 22.01 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Graincorp Ltd (ASX:GNC), which fell 12.18% or 1.00 points to trade at 7.21 at the close. Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU) declined 8.65% or 0.32 points to end at 3.38 and GUD Holdings Ltd (ASX:GUD) was down 7.99% or 0.96 points to 11.05.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 763 to 383 and 388 ended unchanged.

Shares in Downer Edi Ltd (ASX:DOW) rose to 52-week highs; gaining 11.14% or 0.48 to 4.79. Shares in Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU) fell to 3-years lows; falling 8.65% or 0.32 to 3.38.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.04% to 11.87.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.09% or 1.75 to $2,005.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $77.86 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.10% or 0.08 to trade at $82.69 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.19% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 97.30.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.16% at 104.69.