Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecommunication Services, Australian Real Estate Investment Trust and Information Technology sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.61%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Nine Ent Fpo (ASX:NEC), which rose 9.43% or 0.17 points to trade at 2.03 at the close. Adelaide Brighton Ltd (ASX:ABC) added 7.46% or 0.290 points to end at 4.180 and Japara Fpo (ASX:JHC) was up 7.32% or 0.18 points to 2.64 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Transfield Services Ltd (ASX:TSE), which lost 6.42% or 0.105 points to trade at 1.530 in late trade. Metcash Ltd (ASX:MTS) declined 6.29% or 0.105 points to end at 1.565 and Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO) shed 5.00% or 0.010 points to 0.190.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 313 to 283 and 29 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 1.95% to 13.722.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.72% or 8.60 to $1210.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude Oil for delivery in April fell 0.70% or 0.35 to hit $50.63 a barrel, while the April Brent Oil contract fell 0.80% or 0.49 to trade at $61.43 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.47% to 0.7850, while AUD/JPY fell 0.38% to 93.38.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.01% at 94.23.