Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.50%

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 declined 1.50% to hit a new 1-month low.

The best performers of the session on the were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:), which rose 9.72% or 0.04 points to trade at 0.40 at the close. Meanwhile, Codan Ltd (ASX:) added 7.18% or 0.55 points to end at 8.21 and Bapcor Ltd (ASX:) was up 5.45% or 0.35 points to 6.77 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:), which fell 9.27% or 0.47 points to trade at 4.60 at the close. Megaport Ltd (ASX:) declined 5.72% or 0.63 points to end at 10.38 and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:) was down 4.92% or 0.27 points to 5.22.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 766 to 467 and 427 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 7.49% to 12.25 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.01% or 0.10 to $1,935.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.11% or 0.09 to hit $81.08 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.15% or 0.13 to trade at $85.02 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.26% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY rose 0.15% to 94.11.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.17% at 102.92.