Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Utilities and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT), which rose 7.54% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.140 at the close. Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA) added 6.87% or 0.270 points to end at 4.200 and Nanosonics Ltd (AX:NAN) was up 5.56% or 0.180 points to 3.420 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN), which lost 2.40% or 0.065 points to trade at 2.645 in late trade. Invocare Ltd (AX:IVC) declined 2.41% or 0.300 points to end at 12.130 and Cromwell Property Group (AX:CMW) shed 2.05% or 0.023 points to 1.073.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 579 to 561 and 364 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 2.31% to 11.182.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.08% or 1.00 to $1200.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 1.10% or 0.79 to hit $72.36 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.88% or 0.71 to trade at $81.50 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.36% to 0.7231, while AUD/JPY fell 0.45% to 81.44.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 94.15.