Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Industrials and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.95%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mermaid Marine Australia Ltd (ASX:MRM), which rose 6.31% or 0.035 points to trade at 0.590 at the close. Sandfire Resources NL (ASX:SFR) added 2.95% or 0.175 points to end at 6.100 and Syrah Res F (ASX:SYR) was up 1.97% or 0.080 points to 4.140 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Slater & Gordon Ltd (ASX:SGH), which lost 17.46% or 1.070 points to trade at 5.060 in late trade. Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN) declined 7.29% or 0.520 points to end at 6.610 and Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI) shed 7.14% or 0.010 points to 0.130.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 662 to 403 and 215 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 4.72% to 15.883.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.23% or 2.70 to $1175.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.19% or 0.12 to hit $60.16 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.09% or 0.06 to trade at $63.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.38% to 0.7731, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 95.67.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.06% at 95.50.