Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Gold and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.93%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Unibail Rodamco Westfield (ASX:URW), which rose 14.50% or 0.67 points to trade at 5.29 at the close. Meanwhile, Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (ASX:TWE) added 5.92% or 0.550 points to end at 9.840 and Invocare Ltd (ASX:IVC) was up 5.73% or 0.66 points to 12.17 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Ioof Holdings Ltd (ASX:IFL), which fell 10.61% or 0.38 points to trade at 3.20 at the close. Xero Ltd (ASX:XRO) declined 6.28% or 8.84 points to end at 132.01 and Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:LYC) was down 6.21% or 0.330 points to 4.980.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 1175 to 277 and 251 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 11.45% to 15.871 a new 1-month high.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.68% or 12.60 to $1832.30 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March fell 0.70% or 0.37 to hit $52.48 a barrel, while the April Brent oil contract fell 0.70% or 0.39 to trade at $55.14 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.74% to 0.7605, while AUD/JPY fell 0.49% to 79.35.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.19% at 90.812.