Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy, Real Estate Investment and Gold sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.83%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Resources Ltd (AX:SYR), which rose 13.03% or 0.155 points to trade at 1.345 at the close. Eclipx Group Ltd (AX:ECX) added 7.79% or 0.060 points to end at 0.830 and Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE) was up 4.80% or 0.170 points to 3.710 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Inghams Group Ltd (AX:ING), which lost 6.32% or 0.28 points to trade at 4.15 in late trade. Emeco Holdings Ltd (AX:EHL) declined 5.22% or 0.105 points to end at 1.905 and Beach Energy Ltd (AX:BPT) shed 4.31% or 0.090 points to 2.000.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 607 to 504 and 353 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 1.88% to 11.531.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.15% or 1.95 to $1297.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.13% or 0.08 to hit $62.38 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.03% or 0.02 to trade at $69.29 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.09% to 0.7118, while AUD/JPY rose 0.04% to 79.31.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 96.613.