Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy, Healthcare and Gold sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.77%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL), which rose 28.49% or 4.25 points to trade at 19.17 at the close. Meanwhile, Mcmillan Shakespeare Ltd (ASX:MMS) added 14.79% or 1.29 points to end at 10.01 and Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT) was up 6.78% or 5.08 points to 79.98 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB), which fell 12.50% or 0.46 points to trade at 3.22 at the close. IPH Ltd (ASX:IPH) declined 9.93% or 0.84 points to end at 7.62 and Origin Energy Ltd (ASX:ORG) was down 6.10% or 0.360 points to 5.540.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 662 to 551 and 387 ended unchanged.
Shares in Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX:APT) rose to all time highs; gaining 6.78% or 5.08 to 79.98.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.55% to 18.566.
Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.92% or 18.15 to $1952.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.81% or 0.35 to hit $42.76 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract fell 0.71% or 0.32 to trade at $45.05 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.17% to 0.7168, while AUD/JPY fell 0.19% to 76.05.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.17% at 93.040.