Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.60%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.60%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were James Hardie Industries PLC (AX: JHX ), which rose 6.17% or 1.170 points to trade at 20.120 at the close. Henderson Group PLC (AX: HGG ) added 3.72% or 0.180 points to end at 5.020 and JB Hi-Fi Ltd (AX: JBH ) was up 3.59% or 0.820 points to 23.680 in late trade.

Biggest losers included St Barbara Ltd (AX: SBM ), which lost 9.36% or 0.250 points to trade at 2.420 in late trade. Regis Resources Ltd (AX: RRL ) declined 7.66% or 0.245 points to end at 2.955 and Newcrest Mining Ltd (AX: NCM ) shed 7.64% or 1.630 points to 19.710.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 632 to 379 and 348 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 1.47% to 18.032.

In commodities trading, Gold for June delivery was down 1.64% or 20.90 to $1253.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 1.43% or 0.69 to hit $47.50 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 1.78% or 0.87 to trade at $48.06 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.51% to 0.7192, while AUD/JPY fell 0.39% to 79.35.

The US Dollar Index was up 0.13% at 95.32.