Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.25%

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 lost 0.25%.

The best performers of the session on the were Silver Lake Resources Ltd (ASX:), which rose 4.08% or 0.05 points to trade at 1.27 at the close. Meanwhile, Bega Cheese Ltd (ASX:) added 3.31% or 0.12 points to end at 3.75 and ASX Ltd (ASX:) was up 3.20% or 2.17 points to 69.94 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Nickel Mines Ltd (ASX:), which fell 5.59% or 0.05 points to trade at 0.85 at the close. Inghams Group Ltd (ASX:) declined 5.56% or 0.17 points to end at 2.89 and Appen Ltd (ASX:) was down 4.87% or 0.13 points to 2.54.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 676 to 582 and 401 ended unchanged.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.24% to 13.97.

Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.07% or 1.45 to $2,034.15 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May fell 0.43% or 0.35 to hit $80.26 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract fell 0.39% or 0.33 to trade at $84.66 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.19% to 0.67, while AUD/JPY fell 0.26% to 88.00.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.00% at 101.54.