Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.70%

Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Financials, Industrials and Energy sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.70%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Technology One Ltd (ASX:TNE), which rose 5.64% or 0.51 points to trade at 9.56 at the close. Meanwhile, Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) added 5.46% or 0.250 points to end at 4.830 and Gold Road Resources Ltd (ASX:GOR) was up 5.17% or 0.060 points to 1.220 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Virgin Money PLC (ASX:VUK), which fell 11.54% or 0.30 points to trade at 2.30 at the close. Worleyparsons Ltd (ASX:WOR) declined 5.66% or 0.79 points to end at 13.16 and Perenti Global Ltd (ASX:PRN) was down 4.01% or 0.055 points to 1.315.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 651 to 619 and 366 ended unchanged.

Shares in Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd (ASX:HVN) rose to 3-years highs; rising 5.46% or 0.250 to 4.830.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 0.37% to 14.001.

Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.48% or 8.60 to $1814.10 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in January fell 0.13% or 0.06 to hit $45.65 a barrel, while the February Brent oil contract fell 0.10% or 0.05 to trade at $48.48 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.10% to 0.7370, while AUD/JPY fell 0.07% to 76.86.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.12% at 91.858.