Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, Healthcare and Financials sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.07%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP), which rose 25.00% or 0.11 points to trade at 0.53 at the close. Meanwhile, Perpetual Ltd (ASX:PPT) added 6.90% or 1.64 points to end at 25.40 and Magellan Financial Group Ltd (ASX:MFG) was up 4.34% or 0.34 points to 8.17 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG), which fell 4.49% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.43 at the close. Star Entertainment Group Ltd (ASX:SGR) declined 4.02% or 0.02 points to end at 0.54 and NIB Holdings (ASX:NHF) was down 3.88% or 0.31 points to 7.68.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 707 to 520 and 321 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 9.01% to 10.09.
Gold Futures for February delivery was down 0.24% or 4.95 to $2,042.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.58% or 0.40 to hit $69.78 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract rose 0.55% or 0.41 to trade at $74.71 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.23% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.60% to 95.89.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.04% at 104.15.