Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Iress Ltd (AX:IRE), which rose 7.64% or 0.850 points to trade at 11.980 at the close. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) added 5.56% or 0.275 points to end at 5.225 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) was up 5.52% or 0.090 points to 1.720 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Primary Health Care Ltd (AX:PRY), which lost 8.55% or 0.330 points to trade at 3.530 in late trade. APA Group (AX:APA) declined 3.60% or 0.360 points to end at 9.630 and Cochlear Ltd (AX:COH) shed 3.54% or 7.01 points to 191.20.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 605 to 590 and 439 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 3.56% to 11.491.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.14% or 1.80 to $1303.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.17% or 0.11 to hit $66.53 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.39% or 0.30 to trade at $76.44 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.33% to 0.7555, while AUD/JPY fell 0.60% to 83.12.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 93.47.