Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sirtex Medical Ltd (ASX:SRX), which rose 5.17% or 1.120 points to trade at 22.780 at the close. Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX:MYR) added 4.91% or 0.070 points to end at 1.495 and Aveo Group (ASX:AOG) was up 3.57% or 0.095 points to 2.755 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR), which lost 6.03% or 0.280 points to trade at 4.360 in late trade. Sirius Resources NL (ASX:SIR) declined 4.92% or 0.130 points to end at 2.510 and Western Areas Ltd (ASX:WSA) shed 4.27% or 0.140 points to 3.140.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 513 to 428 and 189 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.07% to 14.275.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.72% or 8.70 to $1194.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 1.08% or 0.55 to hit $50.97 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.05 to trade at $56.06 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.07% to 0.7687, while AUD/JPY rose 0.21% to 92.47.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.24% at 98.49.