Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Industrials, Healthcare and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.34%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY), which rose 8.20% or 0.255 points to trade at 3.365 at the close. Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) added 6.52% or 0.360 points to end at 5.880 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) was up 3.82% or 0.028 points to 0.748 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (AX:TWE), which lost 6.16% or 1.110 points to trade at 16.910 in late trade. Westpac Banking Corporation (AX:WBC) declined 4.05% or 1.225 points to end at 28.985 and Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) shed 3.99% or 0.690 points to 16.620.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 618 to 591 and 375 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 4.06% to 11.804.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.05% or 0.60 to $1292.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.41% or 0.29 to hit $71.78 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.24% or 0.19 to trade at $79.47 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.32% to 0.7539, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 83.13.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.20% at 93.08.