Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Gold and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.07%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Breville Group Ltd (AX:BRG), which rose 18.01% or 2.150 points to trade at 14.090 at the close. Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd (AX:CWY) added 13.11% or 0.255 points to end at 2.200 and Magellan Financial Group Ltd (AX:MFG) was up 9.90% or 2.890 points to 32.090 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Unibail Rodamco Westfield (AX:URW), which lost 8.39% or 1.03 points to trade at 11.25 in late trade. Pact Group Holdings Ltd (AX:PGH) declined 7.72% or 0.250 points to end at 2.990 and AMP Ltd (AX:AMP) shed 7.38% or 0.180 points to 2.260.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 574 to 529 and 358 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 3.45% to 12.686.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.24% or 3.15 to $1311.95 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.74% or 0.40 to hit $54.30 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract rose 0.88% or 0.56 to trade at $64.17 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.49% to 0.7123, while AUD/JPY rose 0.52% to 79.08.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.06% at 96.882.