Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Consumer Discretionary and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.45%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW), which rose 3.66% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.43 at the close. Meanwhile, AGL Energy Ltd (ASX:AGL) added 2.61% or 0.24 points to end at 9.45 and Computershare Ltd. (ASX:CPU) was up 1.50% or 0.36 points to 24.35 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which fell 12.15% or 0.09 points to trade at 0.63 at the close. AP Eagers Ltd (ASX:APE) declined 8.16% or 1.24 points to end at 13.96 and Omni Bridgeway Ltd (ASX:OBL) was down 6.03% or 0.09 points to 1.36.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 668 to 471 and 312 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.77% to 10.08.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.05% or 0.95 to $2,048.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.46% or 0.34 to hit $73.88 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.40% or 0.32 to trade at $79.38 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.34% to 0.68, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 96.47.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 101.93.