Australia shares end the day lower

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.50%

Stocks in Australia were down after the close on Thursday, as losses in the Metals & Mining, Resources and Materials sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 dropped 0.50%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were NRW Holdings Ltd, which added 17.42% or 0.29 points to trade at 1.96 at the close. Meanwhile, Chorus Ltd gained 14.24% or 0.86 points to end the day at 6.90 and Netwealth Group Ltd was up 8.01% or 1.14 points to 15.38 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session on the exchange were Codan Ltd, which dropped 8.28% or 1.46 points to trade at 16.18 at the close. Sims Metal Management Ltd shed 7.57% or 1.22 points to finish the day at 14.90 and Mineral Resources Ltd was down 6.61% or 3.70 points to 52.30.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 764 to 584 and 410 ended the day unchanged.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 12.87% to 12.397.

Gold Futures for December delivery was down 0.14% or 2.45 to $1781.95 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in October dropped 2.82% or 1.84 to reach $63.37 a barrel, while the October Brent oil contract declined 2.37% or 1.62 to trade at $66.61 a barrel.

AUD/USD was down 0.87% to 0.7168, while AUD/JPY shed 0.80% to 78.71.

The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.32% at 93.442.