Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.49%

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

At the close in Sydney, the fell 0.49%.

The best performers of the session on the were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:), which rose 5.51% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.44 at the close. Meanwhile, Nuix Ltd (ASX:) added 4.55% or 0.05 points to end at 1.03 and Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:) was up 3.77% or 0.08 points to 2.20 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX:), which fell 7.84% or 0.25 points to trade at 2.94 at the close. St Barbara Ltd (ASX:) declined 4.80% or 0.03 points to end at 0.60 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.77% or 0.06 points to 1.53.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 787 to 474 and 435 ended unchanged.

Shares in Incitec Pivot Ltd (ASX:) fell to 52-week lows; losing 7.84% or 0.25 to 2.94.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.15% to 12.47.

Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.05% or 1.05 to $1,991.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.75% or 0.53 to hit $70.33 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.67% or 0.50 to trade at $74.41 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.20% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.21% to 90.96.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 102.71.