Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.69%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Metals&Mining, Gold and Materials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.69%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Alumina Ltd (ASX:AWC), which rose 17.09% or 0.17 points to trade at 1.15 at the close. Meanwhile, Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA) added 3.10% or 0.08 points to end at 2.66 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was up 3.00% or 0.02 points to 0.52 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO), which fell 7.34% or 0.62 points to trade at 7.83 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) declined 6.12% or 4.11 points to end at 63.01 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was down 4.67% or 0.10 points to 2.04.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 613 to 532 and 372 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.65% to 11.14.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.08% or 1.65 to $2,034.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.46% or 0.33 to hit $72.57 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.37% or 0.29 to trade at $77.88 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.31% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.42% to 97.03.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 102.25.