Australian shares fall at the close; The S&P/ASX 200 was down 1.88% by Investing.com

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

At the close in Sydney, it lost 1.88%.

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

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

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 873 to 262, with 384 ending unchanged.

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

which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, rose 22.89% to 13.61.

Gold futures for December delivery fell 0.10%, or 2.40, to $2,520.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodity trading, crude for October delivery fell 0.48%, or 0.34, to $70.00 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.39 % or 0.29, up to 73.46 dollars per barrel.

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

US dollar index futures fell 0.12% to 101.64.