Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy, Financials and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.02% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Crown Ltd (AX:CWN), which rose 13.14% or 1.480 points to trade at 12.740 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) added 5.39% or 0.125 points to end at 2.445 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) was up 5.17% or 0.250 points to 5.090 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Mesoblast Ltd (AX:MSB), which lost 7.63% or 0.095 points to trade at 1.150 in late trade. Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) declined 6.00% or 0.450 points to end at 7.050 and Mineral Resources Ltd (AX:MIN) shed 5.96% or 0.530 points to 8.370.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 531 to 477 and 346 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 2.83% to 19.923.
In commodities trading, Gold for August delivery was up 1.39% or 17.95 to $1306.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.94% or 0.45 to hit $47.56 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.82% or 0.40 to trade at $48.57 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.26% to 0.7390, while AUD/JPY fell 1.96% to 76.99.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.29% at 94.40.