Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Energy and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL), which rose 6.31% or 0.470 points to trade at 7.920 at the close. Vocus Fpo (AX:VOC) added 5.65% or 0.310 points to end at 5.800 and Newcrest Mining Ltd (AX:NCM) was up 4.74% or 0.970 points to 21.450 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Link Administration Holdings Ltd (AX:LNK), which lost 7.09% or 0.580 points to trade at 7.600 in late trade. Ozforex Grp (AX:OFX) declined 4.57% or 0.080 points to end at 1.670 and Credit Corp Group Ltd (AX:CCP) shed 3.86% or 0.740 points to 18.410.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 564 to 484 and 294 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 5.95% to 14.922.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.61% or 7.70 to $1261.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 0.88% or 0.44 to hit $49.74 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.79% or 0.41 to trade at $51.40 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.29% to 0.7539, while AUD/JPY fell 0.67% to 78.28.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.09% at 97.90.