Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Financials, Utilities and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.21%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lend Lease Group (AX:LLC), which rose 8.71% or 1.110 points to trade at 13.850 at the close. Technology One Ltd (AX:TNE) added 3.17% or 0.270 points to end at 8.790 and Alumina Ltd (AX:AWC) was up 2.67% or 0.060 points to 2.310 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Reliance Worldwide Corporation Ltd (AX:RWC), which lost 15.62% or 0.720 points to trade at 3.890 in late trade. Smartgroup Corporation Ltd (AX:SIQ) declined 5.32% or 0.480 points to end at 8.550 and Eclipx Group Ltd (AX:ECX) shed 4.69% or 0.045 points to 0.915.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 631 to 530 and 373 ended unchanged on the Sydney Stock Exchange.
The S&P/ASX 200 VIX, which measures the implied volatility of S&P/ASX 200 options, was up 1.46% to 14.149 a new 3-month high.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was down 0.30% or 3.85 to $1283.55 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in June rose 0.18% or 0.11 to hit $61.77 a barrel, while the July Brent oil contract rose 0.57% or 0.40 to trade at $71.02 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.38% to 0.6974, while AUD/JPY fell 0.27% to 76.55.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.02% at 97.102.