Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.07% By Investing.com

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

At the close in Sydney, the declined 0.07%.

The best performers of the session on the were Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX:), which rose 8.70% or 0.45 points to trade at 5.62 at the close. Meanwhile, Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:) added 4.91% or 0.04 points to end at 0.86 and Appen Ltd (ASX:) was up 4.51% or 0.12 points to 2.78 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were NIB Holdings (ASX:), which fell 11.98% or 0.90 points to trade at 6.61 at the close. Graincorp Ltd (ASX:) declined 6.28% or 0.55 points to end at 8.21 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:) was down 4.45% or 0.23 points to 4.94.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 673 to 587 and 363 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.65% to 19.49.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.10% or 1.65 to $1,675.85 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in November rose 0.48% or 0.42 to hit $87.69 a barrel, while the December Brent oil contract rose 0.66% or 0.61 to trade at $93.06 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.04% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY fell 0.03% to 92.17.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 113.22.