Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.63%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.63% to hit a new 1-month low.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML), which rose 23.49% or 0.18 points to trade at 0.92 at the close. Meanwhile, Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) added 5.50% or 0.03 points to end at 0.57 and Nuix Ltd (ASX:NXL) was up 4.69% or 0.08 points to 1.67 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Cromwell Property Group (ASX:CMW), which fell 4.43% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.38 at the close. IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) declined 4.42% or 0.33 points to end at 7.13 and Champion Iron Ltd (ASX:CIA) was down 4.09% or 0.33 points to 7.73.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 718 to 399 and 342 ended unchanged.

Shares in IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO) fell to 52-week lows; losing 4.42% or 0.33 to 7.13.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 5.31% to 11.76 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.11% or 2.15 to $2,008.65 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in March rose 0.54% or 0.39 to hit $72.87 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.32% or 0.25 to trade at $78.13 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.03% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY fell 0.09% to 97.00.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 103.08.