Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.30%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.30%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which rose 16.47% or 4.99 points to trade at 35.28 at the close. Meanwhile, Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) added 13.77% or 0.32 points to end at 2.68 and Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) was up 11.82% or 0.07 points to 0.62 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nextdc Ltd (ASX:NXT), which fell 5.55% or 0.99 points to trade at 16.85 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) declined 4.15% or 0.09 points to end at 2.08 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was down 4.10% or 0.06 points to 1.29.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 561 to 525 and 395 ended unchanged.

Shares in Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) rose to 52-week highs; rising 11.82% or 0.07 to 0.62.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.89% to 12.53.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.42% or 10.75 to $2,553.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 1.11% or 0.73 to hit $66.48 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 1.08% or 0.75 to trade at $69.94 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.14% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.63% to 94.17.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.23% at 101.37.