Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Healthcare and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.78% to hit a new 1-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which rose 4.67% or 0.105 points to trade at 2.355 at the close. Ausdrill Ltd (AX:ASL) added 4.43% or 0.070 points to end at 1.650 and Sandfire Resources NL (AX:SFR) was up 3.67% or 0.240 points to 6.780 in late trade.
Biggest losers included G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which lost 5.15% or 0.105 points to trade at 1.935 in late trade. Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (AX:MMS) declined 3.43% or 0.610 points to end at 17.170 and Woolworths Ltd (AX:WOW) shed 3.31% or 0.940 points to 27.480.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 585 to 571 and 362 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 4.01% to 13.421.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.12% or 1.50 to $1209.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.65% or 0.46 to hit $69.91 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.51% or 0.41 to trade at $79.33 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.13% to 0.7178, while AUD/JPY rose 0.29% to 80.00.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.08% at 94.90.