Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, Gold and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.59%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS), which rose 9.09% or 0.055 points to trade at 0.660 at the close. Nearmap Ltd (AX:NEA) added 5.57% or 0.200 points to end at 3.790 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 5.49% or 0.180 points to 3.460 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Pendal Group Ltd (AX:PDL), which lost 12.99% or 1.200 points to trade at 8.040 in late trade. Ausdrill Ltd (AX:ASL) declined 8.36% or 0.140 points to end at 1.535 and Ioof Holdings Ltd (AX:IFL) shed 5.20% or 0.340 points to 6.200.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 668 to 490 and 371 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 4.19% to 12.096.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.91% or 11.65 to $1272.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.38% or 0.24 to hit $63.36 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.42% or 0.30 to trade at $71.88 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7020, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 78.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.03% at 97.382.