Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.00%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Gold , Financials and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.00%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were TPG Telecom Ltd (AX: TPM ), which rose 18.02% or 1.420 points to trade at 9.300 at the close. Sandfire Resources NL (AX: SFR ) added 8.70% or 0.620 points to end at 7.750 and Speedcast International Ltd (AX: SDA ) was up 5.92% or 0.235 points to 4.205 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Ramsay Health Care Ltd (AX: RHC ), which lost 6.57% or 3.820 points to trade at 54.340 in late trade. Platinum Asset Management Ltd (AX: PTM ) declined 5.32% or 0.305 points to end at 5.425 and Atlas Arteria (AX: ALX ) shed 5.25% or 0.370 points to 6.680.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 639 to 626 and 323 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.50% to 10.740.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.38% or 4.60 to $1206.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October rose 0.23% or 0.16 to hit $69.67 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract rose 0.17% or 0.13 to trade at $77.59 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.42% to 0.7279, while AUD/JPY fell 0.47% to 81.28.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.13% at 94.58.