Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Financials and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.83% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN), which rose 4.63% or 0.150 points to trade at 3.390 at the close. AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) added 3.24% or 0.045 points to end at 1.435 and ALS Ltd (ASX:ALQ) was up 3.13% or 0.160 points to 5.270 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG), which lost 5.43% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.435 in late trade. Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) declined 5.13% or 0.060 points to end at 1.110 and Recall Hold (ASX:REC) shed 4.45% or 0.340 points to 7.300.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 576 to 433 and 194 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 12.03% to 18.084 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.60% or 7.30 to $1202.70 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.13% or 0.07 to hit $58.66 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.27% or 0.17 to trade at $65.67 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.46% to 0.7971, while AUD/JPY fell 0.60% to 94.71.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 95.28.