Investing.com – Australia stocks were lower after the close on Thursday, as losses in the A-REITs , IT and Consumer Discretionary sectors led shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.38%.

The best performers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were St Barbara Ltd (ASX: SBM ), which rose 12.79% or 0.03 points to trade at 0.24 at the close. Meanwhile, Healius Ltd (ASX: HLS ) added 10.69% or 0.14 points to end at 1.45 and Ramsay Health Care Ltd (ASX: RHC ) was up 5.69% or 1.88 points to 34.92 in late trade.

The worst performers of the session were Pro Medicus Ltd (ASX: PME ), which fell 7.56% or 17.21 points to trade at 210.53 at the close. Zip Co Ltd (ASX: ZIP ) declined 6.86% or 0.13 points to end at 1.77 and Nextdc Ltd (ASX: NXT ) was down 6.15% or 0.79 points to 12.05.

Falling stocks outnumbered advancing ones on the Sydney Stock Exchange by 563 to 452 and 398 ended unchanged.

Shares in Nextdc Ltd (ASX: NXT ) fell to 52-week lows; falling 6.15% or 0.79 to 12.05.

The S&P/ASX 200 VIX , which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 3.84% to 12.12.

Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.53% or 16.14 to $3,068.44 a troy ounce. Elsewhere in commodities trading, Crude oil for delivery in May rose 0.10% or 0.07 to hit $69.72 a barrel, while the June Brent oil contract rose 0.07% or 0.05 to trade at $73.11 a barrel.

AUD/USD was unchanged 0.24% to 0.63, while AUD/JPY rose 0.12% to 94.85.

The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.22% at 103.98.