Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Real Estate Investment, Utilities and Healthcare sectors propelled shares lower.
At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 1.17%.
The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Speedcast International Ltd (ASX:SDA), which rose 6.39% or 0.115 points to trade at 1.915 at the close. Costa Group Holdings Ltd (ASX:CGC) added 3.18% or 0.130 points to end at 4.220 and Clinuvel Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX:CUV) was up 2.34% or 0.780 points to 34.170 in late trade.
Biggest losers included G8 Education Ltd (ASX:GEM), which lost 9.77% or 0.300 points to trade at 2.770 in late trade. Eclipx Group Ltd (ASX:ECX) declined 4.84% or 0.075 points to end at 1.475 and Hub24 Ltd (ASX:HUB) shed 3.85% or 0.450 points to 11.250.
Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 660 to 542 and 385 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 14.57% to 11.772.
In commodities trading, Gold Futures for August delivery was up 0.45% or 6.25 to $1406.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in August rose 0.16% or 0.09 to hit $57.60 a barrel, while the September Brent oil contract rose 0.20% or 0.13 to trade at $64.36 a barrel.
AUD/USD was up 0.06% to 0.6984, while AUD/JPY fell 0.01% to 75.67.
The US Dollar Index Futures was down 0.04% at 96.850.