Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.26%

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 0.26%.

The best performers of the session on the were EML Payments Ltd (ASX:), which rose 6.67% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.72 at the close. Meanwhile, Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX:) added 5.54% or 0.34 points to end at 6.48 and Computershare Ltd. (ASX:) was up 4.70% or 1.04 points to 23.18 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nuix Ltd (ASX:), which fell 10.42% or 0.10 points to trade at 0.86 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:) declined 6.32% or 0.03 points to end at 0.44 and Polynovo Ltd (ASX:) was down 5.93% or 0.10 points to 1.59.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 761 to 481 and 455 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 5.83% to 11.41 a new 52-week low.

Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.09% or 1.70 to $1,960.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July rose 0.22% or 0.16 to hit $72.69 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract rose 0.19% or 0.15 to trade at $77.10 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.44% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.19% to 93.40.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.07% at 103.98.