Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, A-REITs and IT sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.65%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX:LYC), which rose 9.72% or 0.210 points to trade at 2.370 at the close. Meanwhile, Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR) added 5.04% or 0.060 points to end at 1.250 and Charter Hall Group (ASX:CHC) was up 4.67% or 0.490 points to 10.990 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were ALS Ltd (ASX:ALQ), which fell 5.09% or 0.480 points to trade at 8.950 at the close. Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX:PME) declined 3.07% or 0.670 points to end at 21.160 and Abacus Property Group (ASX:ABP) was down 2.94% or 0.110 points to 3.630.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 649 to 444 and 346 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.85% to 12.886.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.19% or 2.85 to $1477.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.20% or 0.12 to hit $58.88 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.44% or 0.28 to trade at $64.00 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.6881, while AUD/JPY rose 0.17% to 74.73.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.03% at 97.085.