Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.70% to hit a new 6-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST), which rose 6.60% or 0.125 points to trade at 2.020 at the close. G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) added 6.41% or 0.200 points to end at 3.320 and Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) was up 6.29% or 0.670 points to 11.320 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Origin Energy Ltd (ASX:ORG), which lost 13.04% or 1.290 points to trade at 8.600 in late trade. APN News & Media Ltd (ASX:APN) declined 12.88% or 0.085 points to end at 0.575 and Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) shed 12.50% or 0.020 points to 0.140.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 593 to 403 and 149 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 8.98% to 19.684.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.93% or 10.50 to $1138.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.79% or 0.33 to hit $40.95 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.60% or 0.28 to trade at $46.88 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.47% to 0.7313, while AUD/JPY fell 0.31% to 90.69.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 96.41.