Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, A-REITs and Consumer Staples sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.08%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX:LYC), which rose 16.85% or 0.235 points to trade at 1.630 at the close. Meanwhile, Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) added 9.29% or 0.065 points to end at 0.765 and Santos Ltd (ASX:STO) was up 7.27% or 0.290 points to 4.280 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV), which fell 6.58% or 1.40 points to trade at 19.87 at the close. Avita Medical (ASX:AVH) declined 6.38% or 0.030 points to end at 0.440 and Ramsay Health Care Ltd (ASX:RHC) was down 5.86% or 3.77 points to 60.52.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 680 to 506 and 299 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 7.62% to 30.528.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.06% or 1.10 to $1739.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 12.63% or 1.74 to hit $15.52 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 9.87% or 2.01 to trade at $22.38 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.48% to 0.6353, while AUD/JPY rose 0.54% to 68.47.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 100.425.