Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Utilities and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.10%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Cochlear Ltd (AX:COH), which rose 7.19% or 10.27 points to trade at 153.05 at the close. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) added 6.77% or 0.210 points to end at 3.310 and Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) was up 5.75% or 0.130 points to 2.390 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Telstra Corporation Ltd. (AX:TLS), which lost 9.93% or 0.430 points to trade at 3.900 in late trade. Qbe Insurance Group Ltd (AX:QBE) declined 7.74% or 0.930 points to end at 11.090 and Iress Ltd (AX:IRE) shed 5.83% or 0.765 points to 12.355.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 637 to 513 and 346 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 down 3.31% to 13.128.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.74% or 9.55 to $1292.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.06% or 0.03 to hit $46.81 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.26% or 0.13 to trade at $50.40 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7937, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 87.19.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 93.31.