Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, IT and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC), which rose 4.68% or 0.110 points to trade at 2.460 at the close. Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN) added 4.04% or 0.720 points to end at 18.560 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 3.26% or 0.190 points to 6.020 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG), which lost 7.39% or 0.065 points to trade at 0.815 in late trade. Webjet Ltd (AX:WEB) declined 5.46% or 0.660 points to end at 11.420 and Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ) shed 3.45% or 0.025 points to 0.700.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 672 to 551 and 361 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 1.04% to 12.372.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.54% or 7.10 to $1328.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.09% or 0.06 to hit $65.23 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.04% or 0.03 to trade at $69.50 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.21% to 0.7749, while AUD/JPY fell 0.39% to 82.03.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 89.20.