Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.74%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Thursday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment , Metals & Mining and Resources sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.74%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Syrah Resources Ltd (ASX: SYR ), which rose 13.45% or 0.150 points to trade at 1.265 at the close. Blackmores Ltd (ASX: BKL ) added 6.14% or 5.73 points to end at 99.00 and Estia Health Ltd (ASX: EHE ) was up 3.40% or 0.090 points to 2.740 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: CGC ), which lost 27.61% or 1.430 points to trade at 3.750 in late trade. Elders Ltd (ASX: ELD ) declined 5.51% or 0.340 points to end at 5.830 and NRW Holdings Ltd (ASX: NWH ) shed 5.44% or 0.160 points to 2.780.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 686 to 475 and 407 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 up 5.80% to 14.837 a new 3-month high.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.28% or 3.60 to $1277.40 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.88% or 0.52 to hit $59.33 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.52% or 0.35 to trade at $68.22 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.25% to 0.6934, while AUD/JPY rose 0.38% to 76.09.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 98.053.