Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 1.70%

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

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.70% to hit a new 1-month low.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB), which rose 54.04% or 1.07 points to trade at 3.05 at the close. Meanwhile, Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX:CCP) added 7.65% or 1.16 points to end at 16.33 and Insignia Financial Ltd (ASX:IFL) was up 4.35% or 0.15 points to 3.60 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Megaport Ltd (ASX:MP1), which fell 10.56% or 0.88 points to trade at 7.45 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX:ZIP) declined 8.97% or 0.28 points to end at 2.84 and Westgold Resources Ltd (ASX:WGX) was down 8.33% or 0.27 points to 2.97.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 832 to 285 and 382 ended unchanged.

Shares in Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:MSB) rose to 3-years highs; rising 54.04% or 1.07 to 3.05.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 20.76% to 11.81 a new 1-month high.

Gold Futures for February delivery was down 1.19% or 31.50 to $2,621.80 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 1.46% or 1.03 to hit $69.55 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.59% or 0.43 to trade at $72.96 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.03% to 0.62, while AUD/JPY rose 0.41% to 96.63.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.07% at 107.82.