Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Healthcare and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.48%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were JB Hi-Fi Ltd (AX:JBH), which rose 4.44% or 1.190 points to trade at 27.990 at the close. Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) added 3.54% or 0.300 points to end at 8.770 and Flight Centre Ltd (AX:FLT) was up 3.18% or 1.380 points to 44.820 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which lost 10.76% or 0.480 points to trade at 3.980 in late trade. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS) declined 6.56% or 0.080 points to end at 1.140 and Blackmores Ltd (AX:BKL) shed 5.39% or 8.80 points to 154.33.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 724 to 511 and 364 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 3.36% to 11.191.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.08% or 1.10 to $1318.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.13% or 0.08 to hit $63.49 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.16% or 0.11 to trade at $69.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.50% to 0.7882, while AUD/JPY rose 0.74% to 88.05.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 92.15.