Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold, Utilities and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.82% to hit a new 3-months low.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Covermore Fpo (ASX:CVO), which rose 6.10% or 0.130 points to trade at 2.260 at the close. Meanwhile, Sirius Resources NL (ASX:SIR) added 3.64% or 0.100 points to end at 2.850 and UGL Ltd (ASX:UGL) was up 2.91% or 0.055 points to 1.945 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Karoon Gas Australia Ltd (ASX:KAR), which fell 5.30% or 0.150 points to trade at 2.680 at the close. AWE Ltd (ASX:AWE) declined 5.10% or 0.080 points to end at 1.490 and M2 Telecommunications Group Ltd (ASX:MTU) was down 4.95% or 0.550 points to 10.550.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Australia Stock Exchange by 614 to 367 and 167 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 2.25% to 19.692 a new 52-week high.
Gold for June delivery was down 0.66% or 7.80 to $1182.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in June fell 0.35% or 0.21 to hit $60.72 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.37% or 0.25 to trade at $67.52 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.04% to 0.7968, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 95.20.
The US Dollar Index was up 0.13% at 94.31.