Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Financials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 1.58%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT), which rose 4.85% or 0.050 points to trade at 1.080 at the close. Senex Energy Ltd (ASX:SXY) added 4.62% or 0.015 points to end at 0.340 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) was up 3.92% or 0.080 points to 2.120 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Arrium Ltd (ASX:ARI), which lost 11.63% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.190 in late trade. Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) declined 8.01% or 0.88 points to end at 10.11 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) shed 7.25% or 0.280 points to 3.580.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 377 to 193 and 46 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 11.05% to 14.135.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was up 0.17% or 2.00 to $1199.00 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 3.89% or 1.92 to hit $51.12 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 3.71% or 2.09 to trade at $58.40 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.28% to 0.7822, while AUD/JPY fell 0.76% to 93.02.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.17% at 96.92.