Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Real Estate Investment and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.44%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (AX:ALL), which rose 10.39% or 1.090 points to trade at 11.580 at the close. Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ) added 8.72% or 0.075 points to end at 0.935 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) was up 7.11% or 0.080 points to 1.205 in late trade.
Biggest losers included AMP Ltd (AX:AMP), which lost 5.58% or 0.325 points to trade at 5.495 in late trade. Cochlear Ltd (AX:COH) declined 5.06% or 5.870 points to end at 110.080 and Westpac Banking Corporation (AX:WBC) shed 3.82% or 1.195 points to 30.115.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 555 to 508 and 305 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 1.57% to 17.948.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 0.13% or 1.65 to $1273.85 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.15% or 0.07 to hit $46.16 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.12 to trade at $47.48 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.52% to 0.7338, while AUD/JPY fell 0.06% to 79.91.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.14% at 93.93.