Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.61%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the IT, A-REITs and Telecoms Services sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.61% to hit a new 6-months low.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 6.88% or 0.08 points to trade at 1.17 at the close. Meanwhile, Idp Education Ltd (ASX:IEL) added 5.88% or 1.24 points to end at 22.34 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was up 4.88% or 0.01 points to 0.22 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which fell 16.33% or 1.88 points to trade at 9.63 at the close. G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM) declined 11.82% or 0.13 points to end at 0.97 and Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) was down 7.18% or 0.07 points to 0.91.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 741 to 465 and 350 ended unchanged.

Shares in Appen Ltd (ASX:APX) fell to 5-year lows; down 7.18% or 0.07 to 0.91.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 5.81% to 13.69.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.03% or 0.60 to $1,995.50 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in December fell 0.85% or 0.73 to hit $84.66 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract fell 0.91% or 0.82 to trade at $89.31 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.33% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY fell 0.16% to 94.62.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.25% at 106.62.