Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Utilities, Healthcare and IT sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.38%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Vocus Group Ltd (AX:VOC), which rose 5.26% or 0.120 points to trade at 2.400 at the close. Whitehaven Coal Ltd (AX:WHC) added 5.08% or 0.180 points to end at 3.720 and Galaxy Resources Ltd (AX:GXY) was up 2.45% or 0.050 points to 2.090 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Sky Network Television Ltd. (AX:SKT), which lost 6.20% or 0.155 points to trade at 2.345 in late trade. Super Retail Group Ltd (AX:SUL) declined 4.26% or 0.340 points to end at 7.640 and Nine Entertainment Co Holdings Ltd (AX:NEC) shed 3.66% or 0.05 points to 1.31.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 664 to 526 and 366 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 9.46% to 13.484.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for December delivery was up 0.86% or 11.50 to $1341.90 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in October fell 0.04% or 0.02 to hit $47.27 a barrel, while the November Brent oil contract fell 0.83% or 0.44 to trade at $52.31 a barrel.
AUD/USD was down 0.05% to 0.7964, while AUD/JPY fell 0.66% to 87.27.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.29% at 92.55.