Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Industrials and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.32%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Ausdrill Ltd (AX:ASL), which rose 6.99% or 0.115 points to trade at 1.760 at the close. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS) added 6.88% or 0.055 points to end at 0.855 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) was up 6.74% or 0.180 points to 2.850 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Washington H Soul Pattinson&Co Ltd (AX:SOL), which lost 6.16% or 1.580 points to trade at 24.080 in late trade. Vocus Group Ltd (AX:VOC) declined 5.41% or 0.170 points to end at 2.970 and Brickworks Ltd (AX:BKW) shed 5.15% or 0.880 points to 16.210.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 606 to 556 and 365 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 2.97% to 11.711.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.13% or 1.60 to $1209.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.61% or 0.43 to hit $71.20 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.37% or 0.29 to trade at $79.69 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.06% to 0.7258, while AUD/JPY fell 0.20% to 81.39.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 94.07.