Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the S&P/ASX 300 Metals & Mining, S&P/ASX 200 Materials and S&P/ASX 200 Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.41%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ainsworth Game Technology Ltd (ASX:AGI), which rose 9.28% or 0.220 points to trade at 2.590 at the close. Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) added 5.45% or 0.015 points to end at 0.290 and Drillsearch Energy Ltd (ASX:DLS) was up 4.90% or 0.035 points to 0.750 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR), which lost 7.39% or 0.300 points to trade at 3.760 in late trade. Alumina Ltd (ASX:AWC) declined 6.89% or 0.135 points to end at 1.825 and Western Areas Ltd (ASX:WSA) shed 6.30% or 0.240 points to 3.570.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 332 to 228 and 38 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 down 0.13% to 15.923.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was down 0.40% or 4.90 to $1229.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in February fell 0.44% or 0.21 to hit $48.27 a barrel, while the March Brent Oil contract fell 0.47% or 0.23 to trade at $49.60 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.78% to 0.8212, while AUD/JPY rose 1.14% to 96.71.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.15% at 92.44.