Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Gold and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.44% to hit a new 3-year high.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (ASX:LNG), which rose 8.11% or 0.240 points to trade at 3.200 at the close. G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) added 5.32% or 0.240 points to end at 4.750 and Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI) was up 4.76% or 0.010 points to 0.220 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Horizon Oil Ltd (ASX:HZN), which lost 12.00% or 0.015 points to trade at 0.110 in late trade. OZ Minerals Ltd (ASX:OZL) declined 6.88% or 0.260 points to end at 3.520 and Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM) shed 5.43% or 0.050 points to 0.870.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 321 to 251 and 39 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 1.43% to 16.688.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.19% or 2.30 to $1221.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in March rose 1.99% or 0.97 to hit $49.81 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract rose 0.59% or 0.34 to trade at $56.70 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.84% to 0.7651, while AUD/JPY fell 0.98% to 92.02.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.12% at 95.04.