Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.75%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.75%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were James Hardie Industries PLC (ASX:JHX), which rose 6.21% or 3.12 points to trade at 53.36 at the close. Meanwhile, Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1) added 3.46% or 0.28 points to end at 8.38 and Iluka Resources Ltd (ASX:ILU) was up 3.15% or 0.17 points to 5.57 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL), which fell 22.03% or 1.67 points to trade at 5.91 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) declined 7.06% or 2.66 points to end at 35.00 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was down 6.27% or 0.18 points to 2.69.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 671 to 384 and 389 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.61% to 11.02.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.21% or 5.60 to $2,611.90 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.16% or 0.11 to hit $68.23 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.21% or 0.15 to trade at $72.04 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.01% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY rose 0.10% to 101.11.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 105.95.