Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.53%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.53%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:WHC), which rose 5.12% or 0.31 points to trade at 6.37 at the close. Meanwhile, Graincorp Ltd (ASX:GNC) added 5.10% or 0.39 points to end at 8.03 and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ASX:ANZ) was up 3.35% or 0.76 points to 23.46 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which fell 11.57% or 0.14 points to trade at 1.07 at the close. A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX:A2M) declined 6.85% or 0.35 points to end at 4.76 and Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:NIC) was down 5.68% or 0.07 points to 1.08.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 768 to 565 and 397 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.84% to 14.92.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.28% or 5.10 to $1,807.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 1.05% or 0.95 to hit $89.55 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.87% or 0.84 to trade at $95.47 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.01% to 0.70, while AUD/JPY fell 0.12% to 93.99.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 106.16.