Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Gold, Healthcare and Real Estate Investment sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 declined 0.45%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were G8 Education Ltd (AX:GEM), which rose 5.88% or 0.140 points to trade at 2.520 at the close. Inghams Group Ltd (AX:ING) added 4.53% or 0.17 points to end at 3.92 and Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd (AX:SIG) was up 4.21% or 0.020 points to 0.495 in late trade.
Biggest losers included Orocobre Ltd (AX:ORE), which lost 4.44% or 0.250 points to trade at 5.380 in late trade. Evolution Mining Ltd (AX:EVN) declined 4.53% or 0.150 points to end at 3.160 and Western Areas Ltd (AX:WSA) shed 3.99% or 0.145 points to 3.485.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 602 to 573 and 352 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 4.93% to 12.578.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.31% or 3.90 to $1245.10 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in September fell 0.76% or 0.53 to hit $69.42 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract fell 0.62% or 0.47 to trade at $74.86 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.15% to 0.7434, while AUD/JPY rose 0.18% to 83.56.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.10% at 94.35.