Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Consumer Discretionary and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.02%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Bingo Industries Ltd (ASX:BIN), which rose 5.08% or 0.100 points to trade at 2.070 at the close. Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX:CLW) added 2.58% or 0.130 points to end at 5.170 and Coca-Cola Amatil Ltd (ASX:CCL) was up 2.51% or 0.250 points to 10.200 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT), which lost 12.05% or 3.090 points to trade at 22.550 in late trade. Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF) declined 9.01% or 0.690 points to end at 6.970 and Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) shed 7.42% or 0.320 points to 3.990.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 667 to 539 and 390 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 0.44% to 13.885.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.30% or 3.95 to $1340.75 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 2.91% or 1.49 to hit $52.63 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 3.54% or 2.12 to trade at $62.09 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.29% to 0.6908, while AUD/JPY fell 0.43% to 74.83.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 96.898.