Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Materials and Resources sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.19%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Automotive Group Holdings Ltd (AX:AHG), which rose 4.14% or 0.065 points to trade at 1.635 at the close. Meanwhile, Charter Hall Group (AX:CHC) added 4.02% or 0.280 points to end at 7.250 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) was up 3.93% or 0.310 points to 8.200 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT), which fell 5.33% or 0.730 points to trade at 12.960 at the close. Seek Ltd (AX:SEK) declined 4.71% or 0.860 points to end at 17.380 and G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM) was down 4.64% or 0.140 points to 2.880.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 631 to 428 and 380 ended unchanged.
Shares in Seek Ltd (AX:SEK) fell to 52-week lows; losing 4.71% or 0.860 to 17.380.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 9.32% to 17.137.
Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.21% or 2.65 to $1245.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.96% or 0.51 to hit $52.38 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.75% or 0.46 to trade at $61.10 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.54% to 0.7231, while AUD/JPY fell 0.91% to 81.53.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 96.975.