Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.13%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mantra Group Ltd (AX:MTR), which rose 6.38% or 0.270 points to trade at 4.500 at the close. Skycity Entertainment Group Ltd (AX:SKC) added 4.17% or 0.180 points to end at 4.500 and Aconex Ltd (AX:ACX) was up 4.14% or 0.240 points to 6.040 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which lost 8.22% or 0.180 points to trade at 2.010 in late trade. Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) declined 7.41% or 0.050 points to end at 0.625 and Bendigo And Adelaide Bank Ltd (AX:BEN) shed 6.05% or 0.580 points to 9.000.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 477 to 421 and 279 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 4.18% to 15.371.
In commodities trading, Gold for April delivery was down 0.70% or 8.60 to $1215.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 1.16% or 0.46 to hit $39.33 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.74% or 0.30 to trade at $40.17 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.58% to 0.7489, while AUD/JPY fell 0.15% to 84.50.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.20% at 96.25.