Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Healthcare and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.08%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Steadfast F (AX:SDF), which rose 8.07% or 0.180 points to trade at 2.410 at the close. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) added 5.20% or 0.033 points to end at 0.657 and IPH Ltd (AX:IPH) was up 4.85% or 0.250 points to 5.400 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which lost 17.76% or 0.950 points to trade at 4.400 in late trade. M Pharma Fp (AX:MYX) declined 4.14% or 0.055 points to end at 1.275 and Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) shed 3.10% or 0.105 points to 3.285.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 541 to 495 and 347 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 0.72% to 13.186 a new 1-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold for February delivery was up 0.08% or 0.95 to $1197.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.13% or 0.07 to hit $52.18 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract unchanged 0.00% or 0.00 to trade at $55.10 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.23% to 0.7458, while AUD/JPY fell 0.35% to 85.56.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.17% at 101.53.