Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Consumer Staples and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.18%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orora Ltd (AX:ORA), which rose 9.16% or 0.25 points to trade at 2.98 at the close. Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) added 5.63% or 0.135 points to end at 2.535 and Independence Group NL (AX:IGO) was up 4.73% or 0.150 points to 3.320 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Vocus Group Ltd (AX:VOC), which lost 6.27% or 0.215 points to trade at 3.215 in late trade. Magellan Financial Group Ltd (AX:MFG) declined 3.89% or 1.085 points to end at 26.785 and Seven West Media Ltd (AX:SWM) shed 2.94% or 0.025 points to 0.825.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 600 to 533 and 347 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 2.88% to 14.083.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.38% or 4.84 to $1284.14 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September rose 0.12% or 0.06 to hit $49.62 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract rose 0.15% or 0.08 to trade at $52.78 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.20% to 0.7874, while AUD/JPY fell 0.24% to 86.62.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 93.59.