Australia stocks lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.02%

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 declined 0.02%.

The best performers of the session on the were Pointsbet Holdings Ltd (ASX:), which rose 5.49% or 0.09 points to trade at 1.73 at the close. Meanwhile, Domain Holdings Australia Ltd (ASX:) added 5.10% or 0.18 points to end at 3.71 and Mesoblast Ltd (ASX:) was up 5.07% or 0.06 points to 1.14 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Bega Cheese Ltd (ASX:), which fell 6.11% or 0.19 points to trade at 2.92 at the close. Collins Foods Ltd (ASX:) declined 3.82% or 0.38 points to end at 9.56 and Zip Co Ltd (ASX:) was down 3.53% or 0.02 points to 0.41.

Rising stocks outnumbered declining ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 784 to 535 and 458 ended unchanged.

Shares in Bega Cheese Ltd (ASX:) fell to 5-year lows; falling 6.11% or 0.19 to 2.92. Shares in Zip Co Ltd (ASX:) fell to 5-year lows; falling 3.53% or 0.02 to 0.41.

The , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was down 7.62% to 11.36.

Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.45% or 8.65 to $1,913.55 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.53% or 0.37 to hit $69.19 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.54% or 0.40 to trade at $73.84 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.32% to 0.66, while AUD/JPY rose 0.21% to 95.56.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.09% at 102.64.