Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.49%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms Services , Financials and Energy sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.49%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX: GXY ), which rose 6.18% or 0.028 points to trade at 0.472 at the close. A2 Milk Company Ltd (AX: A2M ) added 4.24% or 0.120 points to end at 2.950 and Estia Health Ltd (AX: EHE ) was up 3.81% or 0.120 points to 3.270 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX: BAL ), which lost 4.98% or 0.230 points to trade at 4.390 in late trade. ASX Ltd (AX: ASX ) declined 3.29% or 1.655 points to end at 48.665 and Virtus Health Ltd (AX: VRT ) shed 3.09% or 0.180 points to 5.640.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 620 to 501 and 343 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 3.63% to 12.246.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.62% or 7.75 to $1256.25 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.61% or 0.31 to hit $50.84 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.57% or 0.31 to trade at $54.05 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.38% to 0.7542, while AUD/JPY fell 0.67% to 83.25.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 100.36.