Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Gold and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Webjet Ltd (AX:WEB), which rose 19.48% or 2.820 points to trade at 17.300 at the close. Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) added 17.49% or 3.480 points to end at 23.380 and Appen Ltd (AX:APX) was up 13.69% or 1.760 points to 14.620 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Flight Centre Ltd (AX:FLT), which lost 8.61% or 5.780 points to trade at 61.340 in late trade. APA Group (AX:APA) declined 7.79% or 0.790 points to end at 9.350 and ARB Corporation Ltd (AX:ARB) shed 6.64% or 1.420 points to 19.980.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 635 to 614 and 350 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 1.83% to 12.493.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.43% or 5.20 to $1198.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.04% or 0.03 to hit $67.89 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.23% or 0.17 to trade at $74.61 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.78% to 0.7293, while AUD/JPY fell 0.50% to 80.87.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.34% at 95.32.