Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Telecoms Services, Healthcare and Industrials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.03%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:SKT), which rose 20.48% or 0.850 points to trade at 5.000 at the close. Meanwhile, St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) added 7.82% or 0.240 points to end at 3.310 and Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL) was up 7.38% or 0.240 points to 3.490 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Amcor Ltd (AX:AMC), which fell 8.05% or 1.300 points to trade at 14.850 at the close. Incitec Pivot Ltd (AX:IPL) declined 4.52% or 0.160 points to end at 3.380 and Spark New Zealand Ltd (AX:SPK) was down 2.75% or 0.090 points to 3.180.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 600 to 442 and 330 ended unchanged.
Shares in St Barbara Ltd (AX:SBM) rose to 5-year highs; up 7.82% or 0.240 to 3.310. Shares in Regis Resources Ltd (AX:RRL) rose to 52-week highs; rising 7.38% or 0.240 to 3.490.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.97% to 16.303.
Gold for August delivery was up 0.12% or 1.55 to $1263.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.64% or 0.33 to hit $51.56 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.46% or 0.24 to trade at $52.75 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.35% to 0.7463, while AUD/JPY fell 0.57% to 79.66.
The US Dollar Index was down 0.04% at 93.55.