Australia shares lower at close of trade; S&P/ASX 200 down 0.06%

Investing.com – Australia equities were lower at the close on Monday, as losses in the Telecoms Services , Utilities and Consumer Staples sectors propelled shares lower.

At the close in Sydney, the S&P/ASX 200 lost 0.06%.

The biggest gainers of the session on the S&P/ASX 200 were Vocus Group Ltd (ASX: VOC ), which rose 16.97% or 0.660 points to trade at 4.550 at the close. Appen Ltd (ASX: APX ) added 4.58% or 1.150 points to end at 26.240 and TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM ) was up 4.16% or 0.260 points to 6.510 in late trade.

Biggest losers included Seven West Media Ltd (ASX: SWM ), which lost 5.61% or 0.030 points to trade at 0.505 in late trade. Elders Ltd (ASX: ELD ) declined 4.77% or 0.310 points to end at 6.190 and Emeco Holdings Ltd (ASX: EHL ) shed 4.53% or 0.090 points to 1.895.

Declining stocks outnumbered rising ones by 617 to 583 and 377 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 1.59% to 13.715.

In commodities trading, Gold Futures for June delivery was up 0.08% or 1.05 to $1285.35 a troy ounce. Meanwhile, Crude oil for delivery in July fell 0.75% or 0.44 to hit $58.37 a barrel, while the August Brent oil contract fell 0.04% or 0.03 to trade at $67.44 a barrel.

AUD/USD was up 0.14% to 0.6933, while AUD/JPY rose 0.53% to 75.92.

The US Dollar Index Futures was unchanged 0.00% at 97.477.