Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.04%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 4.48% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.35 at the close. Amcor PLC (ASX:AMC) added 3.16% or 0.49 points to end at 16.00 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) was up 3.10% or 0.53 points to 17.60 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which lost 6.03% or 0.10 points to trade at 1.48 in late trade. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) declined 5.81% or 0.03 points to end at 0.41 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) shed 4.84% or 0.14 points to 2.75.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 619 to 427 and 411 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 2.19% to 10.77.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.25% or 6.70 to $2,658.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.20% or 0.14 to hit $68.89 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.15% or 0.11 to trade at $72.92 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.19% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.10% to 101.04.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 106.53.