Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Healthcare, IT and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.26%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were ARB Corporation Ltd (ASX:ARB), which rose 7.22% or 2.99 points to trade at 44.38 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) added 7.03% or 0.130 points to end at 1.980 and Spark Infrastructure Group (ASX:SKI) was up 6.05% or 0.150 points to 2.630 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV), which fell 8.70% or 0.200 points to trade at 2.100 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:Z1P) declined 5.60% or 0.41 points to end at 6.91 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was down 4.94% or 0.13 points to 2.50.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 694 to 643 and 413 ended unchanged.
Shares in Spark Infrastructure Group (ASX:SKI) rose to 3-years highs; rising 6.05% or 0.150 to 2.630.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.78% to 11.834.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.44% or 8.00 to $1833.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 1.83% or 1.34 to hit $71.79 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.58% or 1.18 to trade at $73.58 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.15% to 0.7469, while AUD/JPY fell 0.29% to 82.00.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 92.445.