Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.39%

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 0.39%.

The best performers of the session on the were Insignia Financial Ltd (ASX:), which rose 6.38% or 0.15 points to trade at 2.50 at the close. Meanwhile, AMP Ltd (ASX:) added 2.97% or 0.03 points to end at 0.95 and Iress Ltd (ASX:) was up 2.68% or 0.21 points to 8.05 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Perseus Mining Ltd (ASX:), which fell 3.56% or 0.07 points to trade at 1.76 at the close. Lynas Rare Earths Ltd (ASX:) declined 3.31% or 0.23 points to end at 6.72 and Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.23% or 0.06 points to 1.72.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 607 to 523 and 368 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 1.46% to 11.30.

Gold Futures for February delivery was up 0.40% or 8.25 to $2,051.05 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in February rose 0.77% or 0.56 to hit $73.26 a barrel, while the March Brent oil contract rose 0.55% or 0.43 to trade at $78.68 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.19% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY rose 0.40% to 96.84.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.01% at 102.19.