Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Industrials and Utilities sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.25%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Retail Food Group Ltd (AX:RFG), which rose 33.54% or 0.545 points to trade at 2.170 at the close. Corporate Travel Managment Ltd (AX:CTD) added 5.16% or 1.040 points to end at 21.200 and Bluescope Steel Ltd (AX:BSL) was up 4.56% or 0.660 points to 15.140 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which lost 3.73% or 0.170 points to trade at 4.390 in late trade. Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX:PLS) declined 3.57% or 0.043 points to end at 1.147 and GWA Group Ltd (AX:GWA) shed 3.04% or 0.090 points to 2.870.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 663 to 536 and 379 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 3.92% to 10.211 a new 6-month low.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.10% or 1.30 to $1270.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.10% or 0.06 to hit $58.03 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.19% or 0.12 to trade at $64.44 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.12% to 0.7658, while AUD/JPY fell 0.13% to 86.83.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 93.00.