Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, Energy and Telecoms Services sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.24%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which rose 6.63% or 0.230 points to trade at 3.700 at the close. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS) added 4.86% or 0.045 points to end at 0.970 and Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) was up 3.02% or 0.200 points to 6.830 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which lost 5.50% or 0.060 points to trade at 1.030 in late trade. Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK) declined 4.14% or 0.136 points to end at 3.150 and St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) shed 2.87% or 0.120 points to 4.060.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 679 to 535 and 374 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 5.01% to 12.467 a new 1-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was up 0.12% or 1.60 to $1327.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.10% or 0.06 to hit $61.02 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $64.91 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.13% to 0.7867, while AUD/JPY fell 0.50% to 83.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 89.64.