Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.29%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy , Resources and Metals & Mining sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.29%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (AX: ALL ), which rose 7.28% or 1.930 points to trade at 28.450 at the close. Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (AX: CLW ) added 6.59% or 0.300 points to end at 4.850 and Adelaide Brighton Ltd (AX: ABC ) was up 6.55% or 0.270 points to 4.390 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX: ORE ), which lost 6.18% or 0.230 points to trade at 3.490 in late trade. Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ) declined 6.15% or 0.110 points to end at 1.680 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (AX: PLS ) shed 4.79% or 0.040 points to 0.795.

Advancing stocks outnumbered falling ones by 590 to 574 and 393 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 down 0.54% to 13.334.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.02% or 0.30 to $1274.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.88% or 0.54 to hit $60.88 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.96% or 0.68 to trade at $70.31 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.11% to 0.6873, while AUD/JPY fell 0.18% to 75.78.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.18% at 98.053.