Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, Gold and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.41%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX:NWH), which rose 32.73% or 0.54 points to trade at 2.19 at the close. Meanwhile, Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) added 9.17% or 0.100 points to end at 1.190 and Steadfast Group Ltd (ASX:SDF) was up 6.27% or 0.19 points to 3.22 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Service Stream Ltd (ASX:SSM), which fell 5.91% or 0.130 points to trade at 2.070 at the close. Pendal Group Ltd (ASX:PDL) declined 5.53% or 0.35 points to end at 5.98 and Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (ASX:ALL) was down 5.01% or 1.370 points to 25.970.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 600 to 588 and 340 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.45% to 24.563.
Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.78% or 13.70 to $1738.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 1.91% or 0.64 to hit $34.13 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 1.65% or 0.59 to trade at $36.34 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.57% to 0.6560, while AUD/JPY fell 0.31% to 70.70.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.26% at 99.388.