Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.36%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Southern Cross Media Group Ltd (AX:SXL), which rose 10.98% or 0.135 points to trade at 1.365 at the close. Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG) added 8.29% or 0.495 points to end at 6.465 and Altium Ltd (AX:ALU) was up 7.76% or 0.640 points to 8.890 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA), which lost 12.58% or 0.390 points to trade at 2.710 in late trade. Village Roadshow Ltd (AX:VRL) declined 9.51% or 0.500 points to end at 4.760 and Myob Group Ltd (AX:MYO) shed 9.21% or 0.375 points to 3.695.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 683 to 433 and 308 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 1.91% to 12.622.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was down 0.03% or 0.35 to $1329.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.24% or 0.11 to hit $46.88 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.10% or 0.05 to trade at $49.10 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.24% to 0.7631, while AUD/JPY rose 0.22% to 76.65.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.05% at 94.68.