Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.64% By Investing.com

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the , and sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the lost 0.64%.

The best performers of the session on the were Blackmores Ltd (ASX:), which rose 7.47% or 5.40 points to trade at 77.66 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:) added 3.87% or 0.38 points to end at 10.20 and Elders Ltd (ASX:) was up 2.98% or 0.30 points to 10.36 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:), which fell 11.43% or 0.52 points to trade at 4.03 at the close. Megaport Ltd (ASX:) declined 6.27% or 0.46 points to end at 6.88 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:) was down 6.25% or 0.05 points to 0.75.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 812 to 469 and 367 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.01% to 11.94 a new 6-months low.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.00% or 18.10 to $1,800.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.88% or 0.68 to hit $76.60 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.71% or 0.59 to trade at $82.11 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.67% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.41% to 92.58.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.14% at 103.56.