Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.33%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy, Consumer Discretionary and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.33%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV), which rose 11.51% or 1.60 points to trade at 15.50 at the close. Bega Cheese Ltd (ASX:BGA) added 8.92% or 0.38 points to end at 4.64 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) was up 7.74% or 0.07 points to 0.91 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which lost 7.85% or 3.47 points to trade at 40.71 in late trade. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 6.87% or 0.09 points to end at 1.22 and Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB) shed 5.69% or 0.47 points to 7.79.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 655 to 462 and 427 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 1.81% to 11.32.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.65% or 16.45 to $2,554.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.23% or 0.17 to hit $74.69 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.18% or 0.14 to trade at $77.72 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.29% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY rose 0.29% to 98.39.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 100.86.