Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Financials and Telecoms Services sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.83% to hit a new 1-month low.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:QAN), which rose 4.63% or 0.150 points to trade at 3.390 at the close. Meanwhile, AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) added 3.24% or 0.045 points to end at 1.435 and ALS Ltd (ASX:ALQ) was up 3.13% or 0.160 points to 5.270 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Pacific Brands Ltd (ASX:PBG), which fell 5.43% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.435 at the close. Beach Energy Ltd (ASX:BPT) declined 5.13% or 0.060 points to end at 1.110 and Recall Hold (ASX:REC) was down 4.45% or 0.340 points to 7.300.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 576 to 433 and 194 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 12.03% to 18.084 a new 3-months high.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.64% or 7.70 to $1202.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.06% or 0.04 to hit $58.62 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.35% or 0.23 to trade at $65.61 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.47% to 0.7970, while AUD/JPY fell 0.60% to 94.71.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.02% at 95.29.