Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.17%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold , Utilities and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.17%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Beach Energy Ltd (AX: BPT ), which rose 7.54% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.140 at the close. Speedcast International Ltd (AX: SDA ) added 6.87% or 0.270 points to end at 4.200 and Nanosonics Ltd (AX: NAN ) was up 5.56% or 0.180 points to 3.420 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Evolution Mining Ltd (AX: EVN ), which lost 2.40% or 0.065 points to trade at 2.645 in late trade. Invocare Ltd (AX: IVC ) declined 2.41% or 0.300 points to end at 12.130 and Cromwell Property Group (AX: CMW ) shed 2.05% or 0.023 points to 1.073.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 579 to 561 and 364 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 2.31% to 11.182.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.08% or 1.00 to $1200.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 1.10% or 0.79 to hit $72.36 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.88% or 0.71 to trade at $81.50 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.36% to 0.7231, while AUD/JPY fell 0.45% to 81.44.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.29% at 94.15.