Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.24%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Industrials, Consumer Staples and IT sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.24%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 4.17% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.25 at the close. Meanwhile, Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX:PME) added 3.86% or 10.00 points to end at 269.38 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) was up 2.93% or 0.47 points to 16.53 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX), which fell 13.65% or 0.40 points to trade at 2.53 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) declined 7.26% or 0.22 points to end at 2.81 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) was down 5.07% or 0.15 points to 2.81.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 613 to 430 and 428 ended unchanged.

Shares in Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX:PME) rose to all time highs; gaining 3.86% or 10.00 to 269.38.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 0.36% to 10.71.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.18% or 4.82 to $2,677.22 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February fell 0.18% or 0.13 to hit $73.19 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract fell 0.17% or 0.13 to trade at $76.03 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.05% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY fell 0.36% to 98.06.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 108.91.