Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.35%

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

At the close in Sydney, the fell 0.35%.

The best performers of the session on the were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:), which rose 5.66% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.56 at the close. Meanwhile, Elders Ltd (ASX:) added 4.80% or 0.33 points to end at 7.20 and Seek Ltd (ASX:) was up 3.90% or 0.85 points to 22.65 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were AMP Ltd (ASX:), which fell 6.14% or 0.07 points to trade at 1.07 at the close. Netwealth Group Ltd (ASX:) declined 3.79% or 0.54 points to end at 13.71 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.57% or 0.02 points to 0.41.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 648 to 622 and 402 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.75% to 10.89.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.18% or 3.55 to $1,933.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 1.71% or 1.19 to hit $70.98 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.43% or 0.33 to trade at $75.92 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.13% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.08% to 96.59.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.05% at 102.71.