Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy, Utilities and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.71%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Altium Ltd (AX:ALU), which rose 2.92% or 0.590 points to trade at 20.820 at the close. Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) added 2.47% or 0.040 points to end at 1.660 and Speedcast International Ltd (AX:SDA) was up 2.35% or 0.130 points to 5.660 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which lost 6.12% or 0.400 points to trade at 6.140 in late trade. Genworth Mortgage Insurance Australia Ltd (AX:GMA) declined 5.95% or 0.150 points to end at 2.370 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) shed 5.56% or 0.025 points to 0.425.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 805 to 485 and 354 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 2.04% to 13.847.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.20% or 2.60 to $1315.30 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.05% or 0.03 to hit $61.67 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract fell 0.11% or 0.07 to trade at $64.66 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.40% to 0.7730, while AUD/JPY fell 0.30% to 82.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.06% at 90.66.