Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.31% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX), which rose 7.64% or 0.490 points to trade at 6.900 at the close. Gateway Lifestyle Group (AX:GTY) added 4.27% or 0.100 points to end at 2.440 and M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) was up 3.78% or 0.070 points to 1.920 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which lost 4.86% or 0.120 points to trade at 2.350 in late trade. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) declined 4.62% or 0.090 points to end at 1.860 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) shed 4.36% or 0.058 points to 1.262.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 602 to 483 and 306 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 3.92% to 13.143.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.03% or 0.45 to $1311.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.51% or 0.23 to hit $44.93 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.49% or 0.23 to trade at $47.12 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.23% to 0.7536, while AUD/JPY rose 0.12% to 77.85.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.02% at 96.03.