Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Telecoms Services and Industrials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.28%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Insignia Financial Ltd (ASX:IFL), which rose 11.11% or 0.34 points to trade at 3.40 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) added 9.88% or 0.12 points to end at 1.34 and Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) was up 4.82% or 0.02 points to 0.44 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Platinum Asset Management Ltd (ASX:PTM), which lost 21.18% or 0.18 points to trade at 0.67 in late trade. Downer Edi Ltd (ASX:DOW) declined 5.95% or 0.34 points to end at 5.37 and AP Eagers Ltd (ASX:APE) shed 5.70% or 0.69 points to 11.42.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 629 to 442 and 452 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 0.15% to 10.23.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.26% or 7.15 to $2,749.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.27% or 0.19 to hit $70.48 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.35% or 0.26 to trade at $73.78 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.80% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY rose 0.73% to 97.82.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.14% at 106.25.