Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Consumer Staples and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.26%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Res F (ASX:SYR), which rose 10.22% or 0.380 points to trade at 4.100 at the close. Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) added 4.05% or 0.090 points to end at 2.310 and Monadelphous Group Ltd (ASX:MND) was up 3.73% or 0.360 points to 10.010 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Ten Network Holdings Ltd (ASX:TEN), which lost 12.77% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.205 in late trade. Cabcharge Australia Ltd (ASX:CAB) declined 6.29% or 0.270 points to end at 4.020 and Bradken Ltd (ASX:BKN) shed 5.90% or 0.125 points to 1.995.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 646 to 388 and 204 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 1.98% to 17.192.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 0.90% or 10.60 to $1187.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.80% or 0.48 to hit $59.84 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.49% or 0.32 to trade at $63.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.15% to 0.7738, while AUD/JPY fell 0.43% to 95.23.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.10% at 94.39.