Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Utilities, A-REITs and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.44%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (AX:ALL), which rose 10.39% or 1.090 points to trade at 11.580 at the close. Meanwhile, Fairfax Media Ltd (AX:FXJ) added 8.72% or 0.075 points to end at 0.935 and Myer Holdings Ltd (AX:MYR) was up 7.11% or 0.080 points to 1.205 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were AMP Ltd (AX:AMP), which fell 5.58% or 0.325 points to trade at 5.495 at the close. Cochlear Ltd (AX:COH) declined 5.06% or 5.870 points to end at 110.080 and Westpac Banking Corporation (AX:WBC) was down 3.82% or 1.195 points to 30.115.
Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 555 to 508 and 305 ended unchanged.
Shares in Aristocrat Leisure Ltd (AX:ALL) rose to 5-year highs; gaining 10.39% or 1.090 to 11.580.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.57% to 17.948.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.12% or 1.50 to $1274.00 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.15% or 0.07 to hit $46.16 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.25% or 0.12 to trade at $47.48 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.53% to 0.7337, while AUD/JPY fell 0.06% to 79.91.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.13% at 93.92.