Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.16%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.16%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV), which rose 15.81% or 0.23 points to trade at 1.68 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) added 9.67% or 0.32 points to end at 3.63 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was up 4.50% or 0.03 points to 0.58 in late trade.

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The worst performers of the session were Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT), which fell 8.10% or 0.12 points to trade at 1.30 at the close. Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) declined 5.42% or 0.06 points to end at 0.96 and Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX:IPL) was down 4.75% or 0.14 points to 2.81.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 689 to 594 and 437 ended unchanged.

Shares in Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX:IPL) fell to 52-week lows; down 4.75% or 0.14 to 2.81.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.96% to 12.12.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.47% or 9.25 to $1,972.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.79% or 0.57 to hit $71.17 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.81% or 0.62 to trade at $75.67 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.02% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 93.01.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 104.15.