Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT , Energy and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.45%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX: LYC ), which rose 6.97% or 0.53 points to trade at 8.13 at the close. Meanwhile, Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX: NST ) added 5.36% or 1.03 points to end at 20.25 and Ramelius Resources Ltd (ASX: RMS ) was up 4.85% or 0.13 points to 2.81 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Cromwell Property Group (ASX: CMW ), which fell 7.89% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.35 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP ) declined 6.50% or 0.13 points to end at 1.87 and Nufarm Ltd (ASX: NUF ) was down 6.41% or 0.18 points to 2.63.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 643 to 448 and 426 ended unchanged.
Shares in Cromwell Property Group (ASX: CMW ) fell to 52-week lows; losing 7.89% or 0.03 to 0.35. Shares in Nufarm Ltd (ASX: NUF ) fell to 5-year lows; falling 6.41% or 0.18 to 2.63.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 4.54% to 12.12.
Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.53% or 17.71 to $3,331.21 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.50% or 0.31 to hit $61.26 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract fell 0.55% or 0.36 to trade at $64.55 a barrel.
AUD/USD was unchanged 0.02% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY fell 0.21% to 92.29.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.02% at 99.46.