Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.22%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL), which rose 14.50% or 0.818 points to trade at 6.460 at the close. Asaleo Care (AX:AHY) added 5.52% or 0.080 points to end at 1.530 and Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) was up 4.45% or 0.345 points to 8.095 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which lost 11.68% or 0.205 points to trade at 1.550 in late trade. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) declined 6.37% or 0.235 points to end at 3.455 and Seven Group Holdings Ltd (AX:SVW) shed 6.21% or 0.730 points to 11.020.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 711 to 431 and 398 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 7.16% to 12.393.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.88% or 11.22 to $1264.68 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.02% or 0.01 to hit $44.72 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.17% or 0.08 to trade at $47.08 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.34% to 0.7615, while AUD/JPY rose 0.41% to 83.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.01% at 96.92.