Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.47%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.47%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were AP Eagers Ltd (ASX:APE ), which rose 4.87% or 0.56 points to trade at 12.06 at the close. Meanwhile, Appen Ltd (ASX:APX ) added 4.15% or 0.09 points to end at 2.26 and Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW ) was up 3.52% or 0.01 points to 0.37 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were South32 Ltd (ASX:S32 ), which fell 4.62% or 0.17 points to trade at 3.51 at the close. IPH Ltd (ASX:IPH ) declined 4.44% or 0.22 points to end at 4.73 and EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML ) was down 3.59% or 0.04 points to 0.94.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 588 to 434 and 389 ended unchanged.

Shares in IPH Ltd (ASX:IPH ) fell to 5-year lows; losing 4.44% or 0.22 to 4.73.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.93% to 10.24.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.57% or 15.45 to $2,733.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.60% or 0.41 to hit $69.00 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.54% or 0.39 to trade at $72.58 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.09% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 96.58.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 106.10.

Source: Investing.com