Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.12%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.12%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 9.84% or 0.06 points to trade at 0.67 at the close. Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:PBH) added 2.99% or 0.02 points to end at 0.69 and Viva Energy Group Ltd (ASX:VEA) was up 2.66% or 0.07 points to 2.70 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Reece Ltd (ASX:REH), which lost 7.94% or 2.11 points to trade at 24.45 in late trade. Wisetech Global Ltd (ASX:WTC) declined 6.32% or 6.70 points to end at 99.37 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) shed 5.49% or 0.08 points to 1.29.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 658 to 460 and 445 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 2.21% to 12.55.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.42% or 11.50 to $2,740.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in December rose 1.20% or 0.85 to hit $71.62 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 1.07% or 0.80 to trade at $75.76 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.15% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.13% to 101.20.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 104.18.