Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.20%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, Consumer Discretionary and Telecoms Services sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.20%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV), which rose 10.98% or 1.45 points to trade at 14.65 at the close. Meanwhile, Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:SLR) added 6.58% or 0.08 points to end at 1.22 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was up 6.45% or 0.01 points to 0.17 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Appen Ltd (ASX:APX), which fell 17.62% or 0.17 points to trade at 0.80 at the close. Polynovo Ltd (ASX:PNV) declined 6.83% or 0.17 points to end at 2.32 and AP Eagers Ltd (ASX:APE) was down 6.69% or 1.00 points to 13.95.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 624 to 527 and 347 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 3.01% to 11.25.

Gold Futures for April delivery was down 0.25% or 5.35 to $2,175.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in April rose 0.01% or 0.01 to hit $79.73 a barrel, while the May Brent oil contract rose 0.07% or 0.06 to trade at $84.09 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.08% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY unchanged 0.00% to 97.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 102.50.