Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Financials, Telecoms Services and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.29%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Australian Pharma Industries Ltd (AX:API), which rose 7.38% or 0.100 points to trade at 1.455 at the close. Credit Corp Group Ltd (AX:CCP) added 6.73% or 1.175 points to end at 18.635 and Northern Star Resources Ltd (AX:NST) was up 5.50% or 0.360 points to 6.900 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Treasury Wine Estates Ltd (AX:TWE), which lost 3.42% or 0.630 points to trade at 17.790 in late trade. Ramsay Health Care Ltd (AX:RHC) declined 2.96% or 1.660 points to end at 54.450 and Vocus Group Ltd (AX:VOC) shed 2.88% or 0.070 points to 2.360.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 715 to 599 and 404 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 3.70% to 12.132.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.32% or 4.10 to $1266.60 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August fell 0.36% or 0.25 to hit $68.33 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 1.75% or 1.32 to trade at $74.00 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.38% to 0.7418, while AUD/JPY fell 0.78% to 81.20.
The US Dollar Index Futures was up 0.10% at 94.28.