Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Healthcare, Real Estate Investment and Consumer Discretionary sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.87%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Lynas Corporation Ltd (AX:LYC), which rose 6.68% or 0.135 points to trade at 2.155 at the close. Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (AX:APT) added 4.31% or 0.620 points to end at 15.000 and Mayne Pharma Group Ltd (AX:MYX) was up 2.60% or 0.023 points to 0.887 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Nufarm Ltd (AX:NUF), which lost 11.83% or 0.995 points to trade at 7.415 in late trade. Ioof Holdings Ltd (AX:IFL) declined 4.89% or 0.460 points to end at 8.950 and Bellamys Australia Ltd (AX:BAL) shed 3.69% or 0.440 points to 11.500.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 692 to 540 and 344 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 9.74% to 13.142.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was down 0.05% or 0.60 to $1230.50 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.26% or 0.18 to hit $68.08 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.18% or 0.13 to trade at $72.94 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.04% to 0.7422, while AUD/JPY fell 0.37% to 82.39.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.11% at 94.15.