Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.37%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy, Financials and Healthcare sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.37% to hit a new 1-month low.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 5.26% or 0.01 points to trade at 0.20 at the close. Meanwhile, EML Payments Ltd (ASX:EML) added 3.64% or 0.04 points to end at 1.14 and Link Administration Holdings Ltd (ASX:LNK) was up 2.95% or 0.04 points to 1.40 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were IGO Ltd (ASX:IGO), which fell 4.11% or 0.52 points to trade at 12.12 at the close. Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) declined 3.90% or 0.02 points to end at 0.37 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) was down 3.86% or 0.16 points to 3.98.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 760 to 458 and 405 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 17.44% to 13.02 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 1.05% or 20.65 to $1,946.45 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November fell 1.38% or 1.24 to hit $88.42 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 1.32% or 1.23 to trade at $92.30 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.57% to 0.64, while AUD/JPY fell 0.61% to 95.06.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.42% at 105.23.