Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.22%

(C) Reuters. Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.22%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, Metals & Mining and Materials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 1.22%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orora Ltd (ASX:ORA), which rose 2.99% or 0.07 points to trade at 2.41 at the close. Meanwhile, Fletcher Building Ltd (ASX:FBU) added 2.95% or 0.100 points to end at 3.490 and Scentre Group Ltd (ASX:SCG) was up 2.20% or 0.05 points to 2.32 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Mineral Resources Ltd (ASX:MIN), which fell 9.44% or 2.60 points to trade at 24.95 at the close. Breville Group Ltd (ASX:BRG) declined 7.49% or 2.10 points to end at 25.93 and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (ASX:FMG) was down 6.40% or 1.110 points to 16.230.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 775 to 454 and 362 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 11.62% to 20.704.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.95% or 18.75 to $1951.75 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 1.77% or 0.71 to hit $39.45 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 1.61% or 0.68 to trade at $41.54 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.57% to 0.7263, while AUD/JPY fell 0.68% to 76.14.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.32% at 93.422.