Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Energy and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 2.42%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Greencross Ltd (ASX:GXL), which rose 2.56% or 0.150 points to trade at 6.020 at the close. Japara Fpo (ASX:JHC) added 2.18% or 0.060 points to end at 2.810 and Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) was up 1.40% or 0.015 points to 1.085 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG), which lost 13.03% or 0.310 points to trade at 2.070 in late trade. Karoon Gas Australia Ltd (ASX:KAR) declined 8.51% or 0.160 points to end at 1.720 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) shed 6.90% or 0.010 points to 0.135.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 602 to 335 and 164 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 14.57% to 26.332.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.29% or 3.20 to $1105.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.16% or 0.07 to hit $44.08 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.48% or 0.23 to trade at $47.35 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.11% to 0.7026, while AUD/JPY rose 0.29% to 84.81.
The US Dollar Index was unchanged 0.00% at 95.96.