Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.88%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.88%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA), which rose 8.40% or 0.21 points to trade at 2.71 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 5.79% or 0.06 points to end at 1.00 and Nanosonics Ltd (ASX:NAN) was up 3.60% or 0.12 points to 3.45 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG), which fell 8.36% or 1.48 points to trade at 16.22 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) declined 8.00% or 0.02 points to end at 0.23 and Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:GOR) was down 6.76% or 0.12 points to 1.59.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 873 to 262 and 384 ended unchanged.

Shares in Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) fell to 52-week lows; down 8.36% or 1.48 to 16.22.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 22.89% to 13.61.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.10% or 2.40 to $2,520.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.48% or 0.34 to hit $70.00 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.39% or 0.29 to trade at $73.46 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.07% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.26% to 97.39.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 101.64.