Phono line on receiver is always live.

If you simply touched the outside of the shell on the cable, it should not make any noise.   If it does, then you need a new cable because it is either defective or an incredibly poor design.

There shouldn’t be any buzzing noise if phono line is properly grounded. You should another phono cable with better shielding. 

Thank you for helping me out with this one! Makes a lot more sense!

It's not any different, except for the gain being a good 20dB greater. Also the RIAA EQ adds another 20dB to lower frequencies. Because of this, the same tiny low level noise you would never notice from a line level input is audible through the phono input. If you switch it over to phono you will probably notice its crazy disturbingly scary loud. Most likely caused by your handling it creating a signal or ground fault. Its not a huge high level noise, but after being amplified by 40dB it sure is!