CANBERRA: Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Consumer Staples, Healthcare and Gold sectors led shares lower. At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.13%. The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which rose 5.14% or 0.200 points to trade at 4.090 at the close. Meanwhile, Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) added 4.08% or 0.380 points to end at 9.700 and Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:SKT) was up 3.99% or 0.095 points to 2.475 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Healthscope (AX:HSO), which fell 3.57% or 0.060 points to trade at 1.620 at the close. Ardent Leisure Group (AX:AAD) declined 3.23% or 0.060 points to end at 1.800 and Resolute Mining Ltd (AX:RSG) was down 2.77% or 0.035 points to 1.230. Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 587 to 572 and 393 ended unchanged. Shares in Healthscope (AX:HSO) fell to all time lows; falling 3.57% or 0.060 to 1.620. Shares in Iluka Resources Ltd (AX:ILU) rose to 3-years highs; rising 4.08% or 0.380 to 9.700. The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 4.92% to 13.619. Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.17% or 2.33 to $1341.33 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.22% or 0.11 to hit $49.05 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.31% or 0.17 to trade at $54.03 a barrel. AUD/USD was down 0.15% to 0.7990, while AUD/JPY fell 0.31% to 87.11. The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.05% at 92.16.
