Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.04%

Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples and A-REITs sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.04%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM), which rose 4.48% or 0.02 points to trade at 0.35 at the close. Meanwhile, Amcor PLC (ASX:AMC) added 3.16% or 0.49 points to end at 16.00 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST) was up 3.10% or 0.53 points to 17.60 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which fell 6.03% or 0.10 points to trade at 1.48 at the close. Resolute Mining Ltd (ASX:RSG) declined 5.81% or 0.03 points to end at 0.41 and Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX:PLS) was down 4.84% or 0.14 points to 2.75.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 619 to 427 and 411 ended unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 2.19% to 10.77.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.26% or 6.90 to $2,658.60 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January rose 0.32% or 0.22 to hit $68.97 a barrel, while the January Brent oil contract rose 0.29% or 0.21 to trade at $73.02 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.20% to 0.65, while AUD/JPY fell 0.08% to 101.06.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.09% at 106.52.