Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, IT and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.98%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM), which rose 28.57% or 0.240 points to trade at 1.080 at the close. Meanwhile, Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) added 27.60% or 3.19 points to end at 14.75 and AP Eagers Ltd (ASX:APE) was up 15.23% or 0.53 points to 4.01 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (ASX:MYX), which fell 10.96% or 0.040 points to trade at 0.325 at the close. Avita Medical (ASX:AVH) declined 10.68% or 0.055 points to end at 0.460 and Challenger Ltd (ASX:CGF) was down 7.84% or 0.360 points to 4.230.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 676 to 482 and 261 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.76% to 43.115.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.68% or 10.80 to $1602.20 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 9.55% or 1.94 to hit $22.25 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 11.56% or 2.86 to trade at $27.60 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.64% to 0.6109, while AUD/JPY rose 0.70% to 65.50.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.21% at 99.545.