Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.94%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Paladin Energy Ltd (AX:PDN), which rose 9.62% or 0.025 points to trade at 0.285 at the close. Meanwhile, Credit Corp Group Ltd (AX:CCP) added 8.09% or 0.700 points to end at 9.350 and Metcash Ltd (AX:MTS) was up 3.56% or 0.045 points to 1.310 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ardent Leisure Group (AX:AAD), which fell 13.59% or 0.390 points to trade at 2.480 at the close. APN News & Media Ltd (AX:APN) declined 6.73% or 0.035 points to end at 0.485 and Liquefied Natural Gas Ltd (AX:LNG) was down 5.19% or 0.080 points to 1.460.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 560 to 380 and 134 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.40% to 19.439.
Gold for December delivery was up 0.20% or 2.20 to $1108.40 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 0.11% or 0.05 to hit $46.37 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.18% or 0.09 to trade at $48.69 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.16% to 0.7136, while AUD/JPY fell 0.20% to 86.70.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.02% at 98.02.