Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Energy and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 2.74% to hit a new 3-month low.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM), which rose 6.27% or 0.220 points to trade at 3.730 at the close. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) added 6.27% or 0.170 points to end at 2.880 and Saracen Mineral Holdings Ltd (AX:SAR) was up 3.08% or 0.060 points to 2.010 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which lost 11.05% or 1.710 points to trade at 13.760 in late trade. Wisetech Global Ltd (AX:WTC) declined 10.46% or 1.920 points to end at 16.430 and Appen Ltd (AX:APX) shed 10.29% or 1.290 points to 11.250.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 1175 to 167 and 253 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 53.37% to 21.785 a new 6-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.23% or 2.80 to $1196.20 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.45% or 1.06 to hit $72.11 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 1.52% or 1.26 to trade at $81.83 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.35% to 0.7074, while AUD/JPY rose 0.06% to 79.32.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.25% at 94.98.