Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Healthcare and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.12%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL), which rose 4.01% or 0.450 points to trade at 11.670 at the close. Link Administration Holdings Ltd (AX:LNK) added 2.44% or 0.180 points to end at 7.570 and Eclipx Group Ltd (AX:ECX) was up 2.36% or 0.090 points to 3.910 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sirtex Medical Ltd (AX:SRX), which lost 6.34% or 1.000 points to trade at 14.770 in late trade. Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) declined 3.61% or 0.140 points to end at 3.740 and Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR) shed 2.79% or 0.105 points to 3.665.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 573 to 565 and 366 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 1.90% to 12.650.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.24% or 3.20 to $1324.80 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.22% or 0.11 to hit $49.19 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.31% or 0.17 to trade at $54.99 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.11% to 0.7995, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 88.39.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.12% at 92.50.