Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the IT, Telecoms Services and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.22%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL), which rose 4.42% or 0.54 points to trade at 12.75 at the close. Meanwhile, Bapcor Ltd (ASX:BAP) added 4.40% or 0.20 points to end at 4.75 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) was up 4.09% or 0.09 points to 2.29 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which fell 5.77% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.25 at the close. Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) declined 4.63% or 0.07 points to end at 1.34 and Hub24 Ltd (ASX:HUB) was down 3.44% or 2.30 points to 64.48.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 537 to 508 and 465 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.71% to 11.80.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.32% or 8.50 to $2,690.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.31% or 0.24 to hit $76.61 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.16% or 0.13 to trade at $80.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.08% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY fell 0.56% to 97.42.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 109.04.