Australia stocks were lower after the close on Wednesday, as losses in the Gold, Energy and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.58%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd, which rose 5.81% or 0.07 points to trade at 1.27 at the close. Meanwhile, Collins Foods Ltd added 5.18% or 0.40 points to end at 8.12 and Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) was up 4.88% or 0.06 points to 1.29 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Flight Centre Ltd, which fell 6.88% or 1.47 points to trade at 19.90 at the close. Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR) declined 5.69% or 0.06 points to end at 1.00 and TPG Telecom Ltd was down 5.40% or 0.30 points to 5.26.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 717 to 574 and 442 ended unchanged.

Shares in Mesoblast Ltd rose to 52-week highs; rising 5.81% or 0.07 to 1.27.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.12% to 12.04.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.08% or 1.55 to $1,946.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.39% or 0.28 to hit $71.47 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.32% or 0.24 to trade at $76.14 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.25% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 96.14.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 102.19.