Utilities led sector gains with a 2.7 per cent rise. Consumer discretionary and materials also outperformed, up 1.9 and 1.8 per cent, respectively.
Energy (-1.6 per cent) was the sole underperforming sector at the time of writing, as oil prices plunged.
Energy technology company Solaredge Technologies was on a strong run at the time of writing, up 9.4 per cent. Fellow energy technology business Enphase Energy traded 6.6 per cent higher.
Healthcare company Baxter International gained 6.1 per cent.
Among the laggards was Old Dominion Freight Line, down 3.2 per cent at the time of writing. The freight shipping and logistics company issued an update on less-than-truckload (LTL) operating results which seemed to be received in a negative light by the market.
Energy company APA Corporation, the holding company for Apache Corporation, slid 3.1 per cent. Fellow energy firm EOG Resources declined 2.6 per cent. The oil and gas firms might have moved lower on the back of weaker oil prices.
Rest of the World
Asian markets were mixed, with the Nikkei and Hang Seng down 0.7 and 0.8 per cent, respectively. The Shanghai Composite edged slightly higher, up 0.1 per cent.
Commodities
At the time of writing, WTI Crude Oil traded at US$82.28 per barrel (-5.3 per cent) as talk of recession continues around the world. This was the lowest mark since January, prior to the war in Ukraine.
Gold gained ground, up 0.8 per cent to US$1,726.20 an ounce.
Cryptocurrencies were mixed at the time of writing. Bitcoin rose 0.6 per cent and Ethereum declined 0.6 per cent.
The benchmark US 10-Year Treasury yield slipped to 3.265 per cent (-0.075).
New Zealand
The NZX 50 remained down on Wednesday, losing 0.4 per cent to 11599.23.
Argosy Property led the market, up 1.9 per cent.
Property for Industry gained 1.8 per cent. The company is in the process of a share buyback programme that began in May and will see it buy back up to 25 million shares, or approximately $60 million.
Fisher and Paykel Healthcare gained 1.6 per cent, hovering above the $19.00 mark. In contrast, pulling the index downwards was SkyCity, down 3.2 per cent.
Vista Group declined 2.9 per cent and the a2 Milk Company fell 2.7 per cent.
Investors in Vista Group may have reacted cautiously to an announcement from one of its customers, Cineworld, who filed for bankruptcy yesterday after indicating they were in financial trouble some time ago.
The CEO and CFO of Restaurant Brands announced their respective retirements from the company yesterday.
Both will go on to be advisors for the chair and new CFO after more than 20 years in the company. Restaurant Brands closed lower, down 2.0 per cent to $8.05.
Australia
The ASX 200 closed 1.4 per cent lower at 6,729.3 points. Energy, materials and financials were the largest detracting sectors, declining 2.9, 2.1 and 2.1 per cent respectively.
Over the past year, energy and utilities are the only two sectors that have made gains, up 44 and 18.6 per cent respectively.
On the other hand, information technology and consumer discretionary had the weakest performance, down 38 and 22.1 per cent over the same period.
Resmed was the top performer, climbing 4.2 per cent to A$33.51 a share. This comes after one of Resmed's competitors, Philips, announced a further recall of one of its products.
Close behind was machine intelligence company Appen with a 3.6 per cent rally. This strong performance still leaves the company more than 66 per cent down year to date.
Virgin Money rounds out the top three performers, up 3.3 per cent.
Chalice Mining underperformed, closing 13.0 per cent lower. Insignia Financials was also in the red, down 7.1 per cent.
Viva Energy, the company that supplies approximately 25.0 per cent of Australia's fuel, declined by 7.1 per cent.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics released the country's second quarter GDP figure yesterday, which showed a 0.9 per cent increase over the previous quarter and 3.6 per cent jump over the previous year.
Household spending increased 2.2 per cent with a 3.6 per cent increase in services spending. This rise brought services spending over pre-pandemic levels for the first time since the Covid-19 outbreak began.
Transport services was the biggest winner, up 37.3 per cent over the quarter.
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