Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Utilities and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.06% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR), which rose 10.64% or 0.125 points to trade at 1.300 at the close. M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) added 7.91% or 0.125 points to end at 1.705 and Nine Ent Fpo (AX:NEC) was up 5.88% or 0.050 points to 0.900 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Boral Ltd. (AX:BLD), which lost 5.37% or 0.330 points to trade at 5.820 in late trade. Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ) declined 4.94% or 0.040 points to end at 0.770 and GWA Group Ltd (AX:GWA) shed 4.29% or 0.120 points to 2.680.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 579 to 440 and 293 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 3.02% to 18.918 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.26% or 3.35 to $1304.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.99% or 0.45 to hit $45.79 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 1.26% or 0.59 to trade at $47.45 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7668, while AUD/JPY fell 0.37% to 78.84.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.16% at 97.23.