Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Metals & Mining and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.75%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIP), which rose 10.17% or 0.118 points to trade at 1.272 at the close. Austal Ltd (AX:ASB) added 3.02% or 0.045 points to end at 1.535 and Mirvac Group (AX:MGR) was up 2.52% or 0.055 points to 2.235 in late trade.
Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which lost 6.49% or 0.200 points to trade at 2.880 in late trade. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) declined 6.31% or 0.095 points to end at 1.410 and Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) shed 5.81% or 0.240 points to 3.890.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 620 to 440 and 321 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 4.70% to 13.433.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.14% or 1.95 to $1351.45 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.35% or 0.16 to hit $46.30 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 1.58% or 0.76 to trade at $48.74 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.30% to 0.7696, while AUD/JPY rose 0.27% to 78.28.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.08% at 94.87.