Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, Utilities and Financials sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.54%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (AX:TWE), which rose 11.73% or 1.120 points to trade at 10.670 at the close. Iress Ltd (AX:IRE) added 9.37% or 1.000 points to end at 11.670 and Worleyparsons Ltd (AX:WOR) was up 8.60% or 0.680 points to 8.590 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Primary Health Care Ltd (AX:PRY), which lost 5.25% or 0.220 points to trade at 3.970 in late trade. AMP Ltd (AX:AMP) declined 5.01% or 0.290 points to end at 5.500 and Select Harvests Ltd (AX:SHV) shed 4.88% or 0.335 points to 6.525.
Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 559 to 494 and 352 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 0.28% to 11.941.
In commodities trading, Gold for December delivery was up 0.35% or 4.75 to $1358.65 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.28% or 0.13 to hit $46.81 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.30% or 0.15 to trade at $49.70 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.71% to 0.7710, while AUD/JPY rose 0.25% to 76.96.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.21% at 94.49.