Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.65% 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 1.65%.

The best performers of the session on the were Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:), which rose 6.74% or 2.13 points to trade at 33.73 at the close. Meanwhile, Polynovo Ltd (ASX:) added 3.24% or 0.04 points to end at 1.27 and Unibail Rodamco Westfield (ASX:) was up 2.08% or 0.11 points to 5.40 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nufarm Ltd (ASX:), which fell 8.58% or 0.57 points to trade at 6.07 at the close. Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:) declined 7.83% or 3.90 points to end at 45.89 and Pendal Group Ltd (ASX:) was down 7.10% or 0.37 points to 4.84.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 1072 to 372 and 335 ended unchanged.

Shares in Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX:) fell to 52-week lows; losing 7.83% or 3.90 to 45.89.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 10.91% to 18.41.

Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.30% or 5.44 to $1,810.46 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.44% or 0.47 to hit $107.51 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.83% or 0.91 to trade at $110.02 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.33% to 0.70, while AUD/JPY rose 0.23% to 89.38.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.08% at 103.78.