Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.60%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were James Hardie Industries PLC (AX:JHX), which rose 6.17% or 1.170 points to trade at 20.120 at the close. Henderson Group PLC (AX:HGG) added 3.72% or 0.180 points to end at 5.020 and JB Hi-Fi Ltd (AX:JBH) was up 3.59% or 0.820 points to 23.680 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which lost 9.36% or 0.250 points to trade at 2.420 in late trade. Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL) declined 7.66% or 0.245 points to end at 2.955 and Newcrest Mining Ltd (AX:NCM) shed 7.64% or 1.630 points to 19.710.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 632 to 379 and 348 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 1.47% to 18.032.
In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.64% or 20.90 to $1253.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 1.43% or 0.69 to hit $47.50 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 1.78% or 0.87 to trade at $48.06 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.51% to 0.7192, while AUD/JPY fell 0.39% to 79.35.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.13% at 95.32.