Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Energy, Financials and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 3.05%.
The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Northern Star Resources Ltd (ASX:NST), which rose 6.76% or 0.880 points to trade at 13.890 at the close. Meanwhile, Newcrest Mining Ltd (ASX:NCM) added 5.70% or 1.620 points to end at 30.040 and St Barbara Ltd (ASX:SBM) was up 5.33% or 0.160 points to 3.160 in late trade.
The worst performers of the session were Flight Centre Ltd (ASX:FLT), which fell 10.39% or 1.75 points to trade at 15.10 at the close. Credit Corp Group Ltd (ASX:CCP) declined 10.31% or 2.10 points to end at 18.27 and Webjet Ltd (ASX:WEB) was down 10.11% or 0.47 points to 4.18.
Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 943 to 328 and 345 ended unchanged.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 13.84% to 20.169.
Gold Futures for August delivery was up 1.14% or 19.55 to $1740.25 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 3.41% or 1.35 to hit $38.25 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 2.92% or 1.22 to trade at $40.51 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.95% to 0.6931, while AUD/JPY fell 0.95% to 74.22.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.36% at 96.300.
